One Man's Hero Is Another Man's Villain
by Nomad-117
Summary: What defines a hero? Is it someone who fights for what he believes in? Someone that helps people? Or perhaps it is someone willing to kill the few to save the many. One way or another S.H.I.E.L.D. is always interested in such people.
1. Chapter 1: Hero Of Justice

**One Man's Hero Is Another Man's Villain**

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I own nothing. The Avengers and everything associated with them such as Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D. etc. and Fate are owned by Marvel and Type-Moon respectively._

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _So, no idea how I got this idea but here were are. Truth be told I know way too little about Fate and probably about Marvel as well to attempt something like this and the two of them are from what I do know probably kinda incompatible. Anyway, this is just a short little one-shot without too much sense in it I fear. Still hope it is at least somewhat enjoyable and decent._

 _ **Summary:**_ _What defines a hero? Is it someone who fights for what he believes in? Someone that helps people? Or perhaps it is someone willing to kill the few to save the many. One way or another S.H.I.E.L.D. is always interested in such people._

 **Chapter 1: Hero Of Justice**

Clint Barton went through the data for the sixth time that evening before he sighed in annoyance and turned to look at Natasha. "This doesn't make any sense. That guy should have died over a dozen times by now and yet somehow always manages to survive against impossible odds… and there is no pattern I can see in his appearances."

"I agree." The former russian spy said, her voice cool and collected betraying nothing of her true emotions. "He seems to wander from one warzone to the other, occasionally stopping at refugee camps before disappearing again."

"Remind me again why Fury told us to chase down this guy?"

"Because everyone else failed." Natasha fired back absentmindedly as her eyes flickered across the various folders and documents stewn out in front of them. "For all he has done we know next to nothing about him." She reminded him. "Shirou Emiya, true age unknown, assumed to be around his late thirties early forties, grew up in Fuyuki city, once graduated he moved to London for but a year before-"

"He went on to travel the world and kill countless people." Clint took over with an eye roll. "Tracing his steps has done nothing so far, no explanation as to why some ordinary guy just decided to start jumping head first into one warzone after another. Coupled with the fact that his appearance changed in a relatively short amount of time from that-" He pointed at the picture of a red haired teenager, "-to that-" Now his finger rested on one of the few pictures they had of their elusive mark, tall, tanned skin and hair the colour of freshly fallen snow. "-our eggheads think that he might have partaken in some experiment. Possibly yet another attempt to recreate Captain America. Would certainly go a long way to explain how he did some of the things he pulled of."

"Agreed." The Black Widow muttered as she lifted another folder. "Though thus far we have nothing but assumptions to support that idea. For now I'd like to try and predict his next move. His MO seems decidedly different from his adopted father, Kiritsugu Emiya." Natasha would know, being older than she appeared to be this was not the first Emiya she tried to apprehend, but her current marks father had dropped off the grid for years, impossible to find, until they started to look into Shirou Emiya and discovered that the deadly assassin had lived his last years in Fuyuki city. "Kiritsugu usually went with the money, he was hired by someone, travelled to the location, completed the mission and disappeared before repeating the process. Shirou though? He just seems to travel from one hell to another for no reason and fights for one of the opposing sides, sometimes turning on his comrades shortly after… and there is the business with the power plant."

"Yeah, when he tried to recreate Tschernobyl and the reactor overload was prevented through nothing short of a miracle?" Clint asked, even though he already knew the answer. "Honestly, Nat? I think our man here has a few screws loose, I mean why would anyone sane even attempt to do half the things he did?"

"It's our job to find out." The russian told him with a frown. She had to admit that Shirou Emiya's actions certainly had the mark of a madman, or at the very least the mark of a man obsessed, she couldn't help but feel that there was a certain method to his madness that she failed to see.

"I knew you'd say that, but that still doesn't help us find him." Clint reminded her with an annoyed sigh. "You and I both know just how many hellholes are on this planet right now, and given his MO he could be in any of them. We can't even say that he'd be at the worst because he just seems to wander into problems the moment he lays eyes on them."

"I know, so what are you suggesting?" Natasha nearly growled at her partner as he flippiantly reminded her that they were not one step closer to finding their mystery man.

"Well, we know S.H.I.E.L.D. got contacts in all of these hotspots right? So why not use that to pull something? Given that he seems to be drawn to stuff like that and kill everyone involved we could use the chance to both reveal his location and have him rid us of a few undesirables." Romanov paused, it was unusual for Hawkeye to suggest such a callous way of action, but you didn't get far as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. if you couldn't be ruthless when the situation called for it. Clint continued before she could voice her opinion. "Just stir up the local terrorists, gangs or whatever, once they start killing each other he'll march right in."

"You sure? I mean there are already wars being fought in those places right now. Why would he care about a little more battle."

Clints smile didn't reach his eyes, which stayed as cold as an arctic night. "When has that ever been enough for this guy? He is acting less like a human and more like a machine, this should trigger his programming, don't you think?"

"That will not be necessary, not anymore." A voice informed them from the doorway as Nick Fury marched in, his features twisted by a scowl. "Roughly thirty minutes ago Shirou Emiya was captured, and convicted for starting the massive civil war in the middle east that has given us headaches for the last three years."

"Sir?" Clint blinked in surprise before shaking his head to refocus himself. "But that can't be right intelligence indicates that at that time-"

"He was still in Africa." Fury finished for him scowl deepening. "My guess is that he is supposed to be the scapegoat for all the bloodshed that happened over there."

"Well guilty or not guilty, can't say the guy didn't have it coming." Hawkeye muttered lowly, his eyes though shone with determination. "So when are we going?" When Fury only gave him a flat look in return he scoffed. "Emiya managed to avoid the whole world for years, they wouldn't have managed to captured him if he didn't want to be captured that's what you are thinking, isn't it?"

"Correct, so I want you two there making sure he doesn't just disappear after he managed to avoid his execution. Bring him to S.H.I.E.L.D. alive if possible, otherwise we want his body. Might give us a clue as to how he pulled of all this nonsense." Fury growled and twitched his head towards the still open door. "Jet is waiting, your gear is already on board, get moving."

"Where to exactly?" Clint questioned even as he moved past Fury and through the doorway.

"To the city of Amman, it took quite a beating in the war but it's where they plan to execute him for his crimes." Their boss told them objectively. "Exact location has yet to be announced, I guess they are worried about someone breaking him out. Though given the state of the city there are only a couple of buildings that qualify."

"Got it, we'll find him." Black Widow assured Fury as she moved to follow Clint. "Any competition we should know about?"

"None we are aware of." Fury told her which was essentially the same as telling her and by extension Hawkeye to stay vigilant. They were not the only ones interested Emiya. The two agents made their way to the Jet without another word lost. Both of them were focused at the matter at hand, a mission neither of them even thought of making light of. Shirou Emiya had marched into one hell on this planet after another, always surviving, always improving, all the while being hunted by dozens of organizations and killers.

His march across the globe had taken roughly two decades and only now people were able to capture him, or rather only now had he allowed himself to be captured. They intended to find out how and why, to do so they would have to apprehend him and take him in for questioning. Two of the world's deadliest assassins against one man who had seemingly fought against all the world could throw at him on his own.

Neither side of this struggle was to be underestimated, and that was without considering the possibility of others interfering. The number of potential enemies within the ranks of their allies was large enough without even considering those that openly opposed them.

In theory the world security council could pull some political strings to make their job easier for them but reality often was quite different. Regardless of whom they ordered not to interfere, whom they bribed, in the end there would always be someone of those that had agreed not to come, or at least that's what their experience told them.

Thus it was only natural for the two of them to check and double check their equipment, their intelligence and the radar. Once they landed in Amman the two assassins would be in their element, able to disappear easily only to reappear again whenever they wished, but while they were in the air they were significantly more vulnerable. Considering that it only made sense for someone to attack them in transit if they didn't want them to attend the execution of Shirou Emiya.

In the end they needn't have worried for their safety on board of the plane. Perhaps the enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. were too confident, too weak or perhaps even too ignorant to try anything against them when they were at their most vulnerable. Regardless of reason they arrived in Amman safe and sound, though Fury had informed them that the personnel on site had already spotted members of essentially every intelligence service worth their salt.

"Our friend sure is popular isn't he?" Hawkeye remarked with an annoyed frown. "Would make this whole thing much easier if he wasn't."

"We wouldn't be here in the first place if that were the case." Natasha reminded him even as she straightened her business suit. Leaving him in combat gear, the same old dance they had performed dozens of times, she would infiltrate the gathering itself while he would make his own way inside providing overwatch and fire support if things went south.

"I know." Clint shot back with an amused eye roll. "So you got a plan to capture our uncapturable man?"

"Force him into close quarters and use narcotic gas."

"Not very original but as long as it works I won't complain. I guess it's my job to force him somewhere suitable."

Black Widow didn't even blink at his reply. "Once he breaks free I want you to start shooting at him, make him retreat back into one of the corridors, once he is in there we'll have him."

"And what about everyone else in there?"

"If they get in the way I'll either take care of them or you have to take them down. Furys orders were clear, we bring him back with us and no one else." She reminded him with a shrug, as if the consequences of their actions don't concern her.

"Yeah, can't say I blame him. If more people like start running around… It'd be bad for S.H.I.E.L.D. if they were not friendly." Clint sighed and grabbed his bow. "Now then, shall we?" He received no answer from Natasha as she made her way to the door. He followed her dutifully, for the time being, their paths would diverge very soon.

She would make her way with a Limousine and appear as an official representative of the United States while he would use the rooftops of the nearby buildings to approach and enter the building. Giving him a birds eye view just as he prefered it. Given that it was an execution a surprising number of people was allowed to attend, even elements of the mass media were allowed to attend, undoubtedly to report and spread the news of the 'terrorist's' demise.

Hawkeye was no fool, he was well aware of just what Emiya had done, kidnappings, murder, assassinations, and countless more. The mere sight of the damaged buildings all across Amman was enough to get the picture across, Emiya had made his way through dozens of such cities all across the world. Wartorn, and at the very least some of the damage and carnage in those wars could be attributed to him, but right now he was about to be executed for a crime he didn't commit. He deserved such a fate probably anyway, but in doing so the true mastermind was allowed to leave unhindered, a fact that Clint despised deeply.

None of his thoughts and emotions on the matter could be guessed from looking at him as he methodically made his way across the rooftops, or at least over the rooftops that were still intact enough for him to do so. Not even two days ago this city had been in the middle of a massive battle, but now it was silent. The war was over, and all that remained were the ruins of buildings and the scars of combat. Truth be told, a metropolis of such size shouldn't be as quiet as Amman was, at least not in Clints mind.

The fact that the execution was held in such a place was indubitably to showcase the horror and destruction that Shirou Emiya brought with him. As if to remind everyone in attendance that he deserved his sentence. Unfortunately in doing so they had just made it easier for Emiya to disappear once he freed himself, the man in question had proven multiple times already that such situations were but inconveniences to him.

Knowing this everyone with even a lick of interest had sent their agents, by this point Clint was certain that a disturbingly high amount of representatives inside the building as well as people waiting outside were actually intelligence service agents and military assets in service of foreign nations. A situation that would inevitably lead to chaos, though hopefully Natasha and he would be able to use that to their advantage. Or it just kill them, business as usual as far as the two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were concerned.

Thus in his typical manner he entered the Ministry of Justice via the rooftops and air ducts. The security was decent he decided with a frown. Just decent, no more, no less, someone as skilled as he and Natasha still had no problem to waltz right in and back out with the security measures that were currently in place. Which meant Emiya would easily be able to do the same.

He couldn't help but wonder if it was confidence, or rather hubris, that caused the authorities to act this way or if he was giving them to little credit, and they actually had additional measures in place, or perhaps even managed to outsmart them all. "Hawkeye here, everything just going dandy. How does it look on your end?" He muttered quietly into this radio as he continued to crawl through the air duct that would take him to the execution chamber. All he received in return was the sound of teeth clicking together twice in rapid succession. Meaning that everything was going smoothly for his partner as well even though she couldn't speak without drawing attention. "Understood, I am just about to enter, see you there."

He got no reply this time, not that he expected one. With practiced ease he pulled himself out of the air duct and set his feet down onto the steel beams that held up the buildings roof like skeleton would support a body. Up this close to the roof he could see the hints of fine and hastily repaired cracks in it, the Ministry of Justice had not escaped the bombardment as unscathed as it had first appeared. Cables spanned through the gaps between the steel beams providing energy to the dozens of lamps beneath him.

Excellent the amount of light would make it almost impossible for someone to spot him from beneath. He silently made his way across the beams and through the net of cables till he had a good vantage point of the gallows. The manner of execution hadn't been known to the two agents, after all it was irrelevant, no one had any doubts that the man in question would be able to avoid his fate.

And even on the off chance that they were mistaken they would just have to haul his corpse back to S.H.I.E.L.D. so that their doctors could begin to figure out just what made him so special. One way or another their mission would be over soon enough. Well unless things got really interesting, personally he hoped things would stay boring. Boring meant that he didn't have to worry about getting a bullet in his brain any time soon.

With a shrug, seeing that Emiya had yet to appear, he let his eyes wander over the crowd of onlookers, officials, reporters, agents and whatever else was down there. His keen eyes had little trouble spotting Natasha in the middle of it all. Her red hair certainly stood out in her surroundings, as did the red jacket of another woman who stood near the front, encircled by black suits and other formal wear her own deep red cloth made her stand out like a bonfire. From his position he couldn't make out many details save for the fact that she had long wavy black hair.

Even though he couldn't see more of her Hawkeye felt reasonably certain that she didn't belong to any intelligence service. The idea was after all to blend in with one's surroundings not to stand out. Still, her positioning would allow her to interfere in the execution if she so desired thus he opted to keep an eye on her nonetheless.

Letting his gaze wander he spotted a few familiar faces, some he recognized from his run ins with the KGB or other intelligence services, another one was agent Ross of the CIA as well as a couple of freelancers. Everyone in attendance, regardless whether they were civilians or not, seemed to tensely await the arrival Shirou Emiya.

Hawkeye could understand after all he felt the same way, the minutes seemed to tick by unnaturally slowly as everyone slowly but surely began to shuffle impatiently. The authorities indeed took their time to arrive but probably only to prevent someone from freeing their captive during transport. When they did finally enter the hall Hawkeye immediately understood why it had taken them longer, and why the security in the building itself had seemed somewhat lax.

The sheer amount of soldiers that filled into the hall and lined its sides was surprising to put it mildly. Natasha and he had taken on more enemies at once before and had come out on top but they've had cover on their side as well. Usually urban combat where numbers did not always equate to an irrevocable advantage.

Coulson would probably disagree with him but Clint doubted that even Captain America would stand a chance if he tried to escape in such a situation. Of course there was the possibility of people in the crowd interfering but given that more than two dozen soldiers watched every participant like a hawk meant the moment they tried something they'd be gunned down. Hawkeye felt rather certain that that fact alone was enough to dissuade even the most devoted helpers of Emiya, at least somewhat.

A motion in the front rows caught his attention, the red clad woman had clasped a sapphire pendant between her hands as at long last Shirou Emiya was brought in. He was unusually tall, standing taller than any of his guards that led him forward, his tanned skin appeared to be an lighter hue beneath the artificial light, while his snow white hair seemed to literally shine. His gray eyes seemed to take everything in with calm indifference.

Hawkeye squinted, he had been mistaken, Emiya had hesitated only for the fraction of a second but his gaze had been fixed somewhere. The lady in red it seemed, and hadn't he intently watched the two of them in right this very moment he never would have noticed the miniscule almost invisible shake of the prisoners head. The woman's hands fell to her sides, her pendant forgotten, hands clenching into fists instead even as they softly trembled for but a moment.

 _So, they actually know each other. Interesting, might be a good idea to find her later then._ Hawkeye concluded, making a mental note of the fact, and resumed watching Emiya's slow march towards the gallows. He couldn't help but lean slightly forward in anticipation, curious what Emiya would do now.

Shirou Emiya came to a stop right in front of the noose, a guard behind him pulling out a rough black cloth to cover his face with. Emiya closed his eyes and smiled. A calm, happy, satisfied, even carefree smile that struck Clint to the core. No man about to be killed should be able to smile like that.

The cloth was pulled over his head, hiding the expression that unsettled Hawkeye from the world, only to be shortly followed by the noose. Clint knew what was about to happen, even when not everyone else had caught up to it yet. With a snap the rope became taunt, the force of the fall snapping Emiya's neck, and mercifully killing him instantly.

A quick downward look revealed more than a few shocked faces. Apparently they hadn't been the only ones who had their expectations turned upside down. "Hawkeye." Natashas soft voice rang out from his radio and he twitched ever so slightly in surprise at being contacted in this moment. "Move towards the Morgue in the back… we'll bring him back with us."

The slightest pause in her speech told him enough, she was just as shocked as he was by this turn of events but like any good agent they couldn't allow the unexpected to paralyze them. "Copy that." He replied curtly, his body moving on auto-pilot towards the his new objective even as he turned to look back at the body that was slowly being lifted back up and put on a stretcher.

Framed or not, he was certain that the authorities were just as curious as S.H.I.E.L.D. about how he did what he did. He was about to turn back around when he noticed that the red clad woman had seemingly disappeared. As he made his way to the morgue he contacted Natasha once more. "Widow, be advised. The red clad woman in the front possibly, probably knew Emiya. She disappeared, could try to stop us."

"Got it." Natasha told him quietly and severed the connection again. Hawkeye just continued moving, thoughts zeroing back in on the mission, even as the last image of that smile seemed to haunt him from the back of his mind. Along with the question why it bothered him so much, he had seen and experienced a lot of worse things during his time with S.H.I.E.L.D. so he had trouble nailing down just why that image wouldn't leave him alone.

Exhaling slowly he decided to leave that train of thought for later and first get the mission over and done with. Peering through the grid of the air duct he saw and heard no one, and with the earlier assurances of Fury not to worry about the security camera he deemed it safe enough to drop down straight into the Morgue.

The shrouded corpse of Shirou Emiya was already waiting for him along with a suspiciously still Natasha Romanov who remained facing in the other direction. "Widow?" He managed to get out before a noise behind him caused him to whirl around. He briefly saw a flash of aqua eyes and then… he was suddenly sitting in a cafe in the city of Amman, Natasha opposite of him clearly just as confused as he was.

"What-" He stopped himself from making a scene and let out a breath. "What happened we were in the morgue and now we are-"

"We were in the morgue? I only remember leaving the room and- there was someone? I think- I can't remember. There had to be…" She trailed of, clearly unsettled by the thought that someone had so easily been able to get the drop on her.

Not that Hawkeye could blame her, he felt the same way, and he had the nagging suspicion that he was forgetting something as well. He had warned Natasha about someone, or at least he thought but no he wasn't sure anymore. He recalled a smile that unsettled him, making his way to the Morgue, his arrival and then nothing. "Lets- Let's get out of here for now." He suggested quietly and stood up. "Fury will wanna hear this."

 **Author Notes:**

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _So yeah, that was… something. I kinda watched Unlimited Blade Works, and a few days later might have gotten my hands on Infinity War and here we are I guess. At least that's the only thing that makes any sense to me as to how I got here. Anyway, I really tried to make it clear how Emiya travelled the world, was willing to get his hands dirty to safe the majority while also never being understood. Not exactly sure how to put this but… well people like S.H.I.E.L.D. probably go into Super-paranoia mode when they see someone travelling across the world killing people left and right, pulling of stuff that he shouldn't be able to, and the whole time they just can't figure out his motive. Well, at least thats what would worry me if I worked for a secret government agency thingy, I guess._

 _Meh, whatever. At least I got one crazy idea less bouncing around my head now. Yay me?_

 _ **PS:**_ _What defines a hero? When does someone actually qualify, is there are singular correct concept of being a hero?_


	2. Chapter 2: After Action Report

**Chapter 2: After Action Report**

Hawkeye slowly exhaled as Fury stared down at Natasha and him. Though he was an unrelenting taskmaster, Fury was not unfair, he preferred to have all the facts before he began blaming someone. Though even a blind man would have been able to see that the one eyed man was anything but pleased at the news of their failure.

"You are telling me that Emiya just allowed himself to be killed, and then an unknown figure just got the drop on the two of you, disappeared with the body while letting you live?" Fury asked for clarification his one eye narrowing in thought.

"It doesn't add up." Clint supplied his own thoughts on the matter, knowing they would mirror those of both Fury and Natasha in this instance. "Not trying to be an arrogant ass here, but I know that Natasha and I are damn good. There are not many people who could get the drop on us in the first place, and for them not to kill us as soon as they get the chance? It just doesn't make sense, if you get the chance you deny your opponent access to his assets."

"Agreed." Natasha said, face set in a mask of cold indifference. "More concerning is the fact that Hawkeye recalls seeing me in the Morgue, I however have no recollection of going there. Which means that whoever ambushed the two of us managed to somehow get us to comply with his or her wishes. Perhaps through the use of drugs." The Black Widow suggested, knowing all too well that there were multiple substances that could cause increased compliance as well as short term memory loss.

"Possibly, the two of you better prepare a blood sample ASAP. I'd rather not take any chances of not finding any traces just because we waited for too long." Fury told them sternly, even though there was a hint of skepticism on his face. "Though the fact that the two of you were subdued so quickly, without a fight, and were released in an simultaneous manner speaks against the use of drugs I'd say. Unless it's something we never encountered before."

Hawkeye snorted in response to that. "No offense, but that's almost a given, considering our line of work."

"I am well aware, Hawkeye." Fury told him in a tone that all but screamed at him to shut up unless he had something important to say. "The fact is that you failed to retrieve the body. The Council, particularly Pierce, isn't happy. Quite frankly I don't have a lot of information but my guess is that Emiya ruined some of their own projects, or at leasts Pierces." Clint could see how Natasha clenched her teeth at the reminder of their failure, not that either one of them needed one. "Essentially they are telling me that unexpected opposition is what we sent you two for, that you are expected to succeed despite it. I tried to tell them that it isn't as easy as that, but they arent listening."

"Well, what else is new." Hawkeye groused and folded his arms across his chest. "So you're telling me that the council is mad cause Emiya wrecked some of their little pet projects and now they don't get to play with his body? Pity he is dead, cause I start to like the guy."

"That's good, because you are going to try and find his body." Fury told him, his eye staring him down, daring him to object. "Thus far our saving grace is that apparently everyone else is just as confused as we are. Whoever took Emiya seems to have outsmarted everyone involved."

"Which is good and bad." Natasha noted cooly from the side. "It means they aren't necessarily hostile, but also that we don't know anything about them and that they are good enough to stay off the radar of everyone."

"Exactly, which is why I want you to find out what you can on site. Gather what you can, and then come back and report to me. In person." Fury ordered as he folded his arms across his chest. "Considering all that's been going on I think it best if we keep this close to our chest. At least for the time being."

"So right back to the Morgue then?" Hawkeye asked with a lazy shrug. "Fine by me, and perhaps our IT guys could get something from the cameras."

"Doubtful." Natasha disagreed with that notion. "Considering the amount of people who were smuggled in and undoubtedly tried to do the same as us. It is very unlikely that the camera footage is useable or even accurate."

"I leave the matter up to you." Fury told them indifferently as he closed the connection without another word. Without the weighend gaze of his boss Hawkeye felt as if it suddenly got easier to breath.

"Well, that went better than expected." Hawkeye remarked dryly and rolled his eyes as Natasha lightly swatted his arm. "We both know that going right back is just asking for trouble."

"Of course, I figured we'd go back to the cafe and see if we can retrace our steps from there." The russian explained simply even as she made her way to the entrance of their small hideout. "You coming?"

"After such an invitation how could I do anything but?" Clint questioned sardonically, masterfully ignoring the glare he received in turn. As Natasha turned her back to him and began to walk out he quickly pressed a few buttons on his personal tablet. Requesting every last bit of information S.H.I.E.L.D. had Emiya.

He couldn't say why, but that smile, it was stuck in his head, and more than ever he felt as if he was missing something when studying Shirou Emiya. Perhaps once he discovered what that something was that image would stop haunting him.

His surprising desire fulfilled he made to follow Natasha without another hint of hesitation. The way her head ever so slightly inclined to the side made him think that she knew that he was up to something but it wasn't worried enough to press him on the matter.

Something which he didn't mind in the slightest as he had no idea what to say if pressed for an answer. He had begun this whole thing because the image of a dying criminal wouldn't leave his mind, and because his gut told him that there was more to it then he realized.

Eyes adjusting to the sunlight that painted the city in a variety of shades of red he followed Widow into the streets. Their populace far too small for a city of such a size, but with the war at an end people had already began returning. Of course such a sparse population also meant that Natasha and he would stand out more to others. Usually something they sought to avoid, but to the locals they were most likely nothing more than yet more representatives of some foreign country, and this also meant that they could question the locals whether or not they had seen them before.

He had little doubt that they would at the very least be able to remember Widow, judging from the amount of stares following her. She stood out, always had for as long as he had known her at least, which left him to observe others in turn. Nobody of immediate interest so far, but he didn't complain as they made their way to the cafe. Which truth be told Hawkeye had to admit was actually a rather nice cafe. Whoever had taken them by surprise had good taste at least.

Natasha immediately began to question the staff, showing them a picture of Clint while he waited outside. He didn't know exactly what she said, or how she did it, but she disappeared into the back, probably to look over the camera footage. He waited in silence for her to return eyes taking in his surroundings. He couldn't help the sliver of paranoia that had taken root in his brain. In his mind it only made sense to let them go if they were still under observation, or could be controlled once more whenever their adversary desired.

Yet no matter where he looked he only saw ordinary people, going about their lives and any interest they showed in him was merely genuine curiosity. Still not about to let his guard down he checked the area till Natasha finally returned roughly a quarter of an hour later. "Looks like we entered the cafe from the main street. Following it westways we'd pass by the Ministry of Justice."

"Alrighty, then I talk to the people there." Hawkeye remarked easily and pulled out his phone. Without so much as giving her a warning he snapped a picture of Widows face. "I am sure they'll remember you if they saw you."

"As long as that isn't the only thing they remember." The russian groused with an eye roll and nodded at him. "Get going."

"Yes, ma'am." He shot back mockingly even as he already moved to follow her command. Thus late afternoon turned into evening as Hawkeye questioned one shopkeeper, passerby or resident after another. Although his efforts were not in vain as he learned a few interesting tidbits. They had come through a few back alleys before opting to follow the main road for one, and the fact that one shopkeeper loudly complained about couple of firefighter trucks nearly running him over, rushing to the Ministry of Justice without their sirens engaged.

Perhaps a somewhat clumsy effort to keep people from noticing. If so they achieved the opposite, people took more notice of things that didn't fall into the norm after all. Though with the casualties of the war he wasn't exactly surprised probably a lot of the more experienced people in this country now lay dead somewhere, which lead to those who were still green to take charge in certain matters.

He made his way back to their rooms, hideout really, and marched right in without so much as knocking and closed the doors behind himself. "Might have found something Nat." He called towards the kitchen as he hung up his jacket.

"What is it?" She asked, her eyes not straying from his tablet as she read through the data of Shirou Emiya. In hindsight he really should have known that she would do something like this. "And why the sudden renewed interest in a dead man?"

"I got a potential fire in the Ministry of Justice, figured we could check it out tonight." Hawkeye told her as he ignored her second question for the moment. "I know it's risky but we might learn something. Our route was partly via backstreets before we switched to the main road, so I guess our ambusher didn't want us to just wander around and get us shot, nice of him or her I guess."

"You think that they tried to cover their tracks with the fire?"

"If you are pressed for time is there a better way to get rid of evidence than burn it all up?" He shot back rhetorically and shrugged. "As for Emiya… I just feel like I am missing something."

"You won't find it in there." Natasha told him flatly and shoved the tablet in his direction. "It's the same info we got before coming here."

"I know… I know. I'll check through it anyways for now. We got a bit of time before our next visit to the Ministry." He muttered already lost in thought as he read through every bit of information the screen would offer him.

"Suit yourself." Natasha replied indifferently and left him to his thoughts.

Unfortunately for him she was right, there was nothing in that data, that would lead him to the solution of the riddle that was Emiya. He needed more information, so he requested it. Data about every place Emiya had been active in, while he had been there, then he requested data about the place after Emiya had left, and eventually before he had showed up at all, and then he even slowly began to try and compare similar hells on this earth with the ones Emiya had visited.

In the end he simply lacked the time to just properly do anything of that so he used his authority as a high ranking agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to ruin the day of what would probably end being an entire team of analysts. He send them the entire data package and in essence ordered them to analyse the hell out of it. Every little bit of information no matter how outlandish they could draw from it he wanted to know about, he also stressed that he was less interested in the _how_ but rather in the _why_.

He had just set down the tablet when Natasha returned from her room. "Already done?" She asked with a single raised eyebrow to which he offered a chuckle.

"No way, but I left it to the pros. Hopefully once we are back in the states they'll have something for us." He told her with a sigh, absentmindedly he had already began to arm himself.

"Us?" She questioned softly, her head inclining ever so slightly to the left in a show of curiosity.

"Don't tell me you are not at all curious." Hawkeye dared her with a sly grin, her silence was all the answer he needed. A silence that continued on as the two of them made their way across the rooftops to the Ministry of Justice. It was different route than he had taken to get there, after all becoming a creature of habit was a good way to end up dead in this line of work.

Of course their troubles did not end there, after the disappearance of Emiya's body and the apparent subsequent fire security had been tightened. Not enough that they wouldn't be able to get inside anymore but certainly to make it more interesting, and forcing them to move slower and more carefully.

Considering the late hour there was an surprising amount of personal still active within the building. The execution chamber, as Hawkeye had dubbed the hall, was still brightly lit and men and women were practically scanning every bit surface available and taking in everything as evidence that wasn't bolted down. The fact that they had such a general modus operandi told the two agents that the authorities also had no idea whom exactly they were looking for.

After observing the forensics for a few more minutes and concluding that they wouldn't be able to get any information from here they moved on towards the morgue. The time it took them to reach it was at least thrice as long as before, as security seemed to be getting ever more vigilant the closer they got there.

A glance through the grid of the air duct was telling enough. The fire had been within the morgue, and had apparently burned hot enough to warp the metal of the autopsy tables and the frozen compartmens used to store bodies. A fire this hot would have easily taken care of all potential evidence and then some, whoever did this was not stupid.

However they still needed more information, and given that further down the hallway, where security was tightets of course, was what appeared to be makeshift laboratory where they processed all items and evidence found they had an idea on where to get them.

Of course such tight security meant that they had to be careful, and thus a distance that they could have cleared in a minute under the usual circumstances turned into half an hour of slow crawling, blinding of sensors, jamming of cameras, and pausing every time a guard walked beneath them, which was frustratingly often.

Their efforts however eventually paid of as they managed to reach the laboratory. Forensics were scrambling all of the place, meaning the had no way of physically entering the place. Fortunately they didn't have to, slowly as to avoid any unnecessary noise Natasha pulled out a small hand held computer from one of her belt bags.

They wouldn't set all of this equipment up if they weren't able to send the information somewhere else with it. The idea was simple, get inside the the transmission and everything that was discovered would be sent to their miniature computer, and thus to S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. While neither Black Widow nor Hawkeye were accomplished enough hackers to do something like this the IT guys of S.H.I.E.L.D. had been kind enough to install them a whole pallet of programs specifically designed for such things.

All they had to do now was wait as their computer established a wireless connection. Once it did, they could read through every single discovery made thus far and any other information that would come up in the future. For the moment the two of them focused on the fire. Apparently the forensics were unable to locate a point of origin, as if the entirety of the floor had just simulatiansuly began burning. More worryingly they had been unable to find even microscopic traces of a combustivel agent, and to top things of the fire had burned smokeless with enough heat to warp metal while also resisting the efforts of the firefighters to put it out for more than ten minutes when it according to eye witness reports just suddenly seemed to stop.

Hawkeye was certain that Fury would very much like to have that information. The technology to increase such intense, traceless flames was worryingly enough if just used to burn down a single room or building, but once you scaled up the area of effect it became very worrying indeed.

Aside from that were dozens of DNA samples, miniscule pieces of clothing, and at times fingerprints being examined, most of the time without any hope of finding a match. However, there were a couple of blood samples that drew Hawkeyes attention. Apparently they were being screened for drugs, or any kind of substance out of the ordinary really.

According to the data they all belonged to guards that had been assigned to the building before Emiya got here. And all of the affected showed signs of short term memory loss, some merely had lost a few minutes of, others had woken up in a completely different location with no idea of how they got there, and another one was currently being questioned as his authorization had deleted all camera footage within the building, although he claimed to have no memory of ever doing so.

It certainly seemed like their mysterious assailant hadn't just gotten the drop on them, but rather on everyone involved. Which just made them even more dangerous in Hawkeyes mind. Glancing over at Natasha he was surprised to see that she hadn't read any of the data but rather had pulled out what looked like the components of a miniature antenna which she had already assembled and now was securing on the wall of the air duct.

"Can leave now, will continue to receive data." She signed him and twitched her way backwards. He nodded at her in reply and the two of them began their exhausting way back. Their skills along with perhaps a bit of fortune allowed them to leave the building once more undetected and they silently made their way back towards their hideout. From there they would immediately go to the plane S.H.I.E.L.D. had provided them with and leave.

No use in sticking around after all, Hawkeye had the feeling that the had overstayed their welcome anyway. Collecting what little belongings they brought with them from their rooms they made their way to the airport. Bypassing security once more the two of them made their way to the plane, which had already finished all required checkups and had already gotten the permission to start.

The moment Clint shut the door behind himself the plane accelerated already, just as instructed. Once he trusted himself to keep standing without holding onto something Clint made his way to a nearby seat, tiredly sitting down. He barely managed to check his tablet for any news, which just as he expected had yet to arrive before he allowed his eyes to close and himself to sleep.

He had once read somewhere that sleep played a role in the processing and order of memories as well as other psychological factors, thus he was thankful that his sleep was dreamless. His worries lay heavily enough on his mind in his waking moments after all, so the respite however brief was very much welcome.

He awoke to Natasha softly touching his shoulder, at his questioning glance she shrugged. "We'll arrive at the Triskelion soon. And you got some news, figured you'd want to look them over before explaining to Fury why you spent all that effort on a dead man."

"Thanks." He mumbled and blinked a few times to clear his vision. Hands grasping the tablet that Natasha offered to him. Without so much as a pause he opened the report the analysts had composed for him and began reading.

Admittedly they repeatedly stated that even all this data was not enough to say for certain they could still provide at least some correlation between Emiya's appearances and a decrease in criminal and terror activity. Statistical comparisons filed one page after another, comparing sites before, after and during his presence in them as well as comparing these stages with other hotspots where Emiya never appeared at all.

Although they hasted to add that Emiya might simply have been the catalyst that caused others to hunt him, and by extension others like him down they couldn't deny the possibility that that might have been his intent all along.

The back of his head hit the chairback heavily, contemplating if that truly made any sense. One man with incredible abilities devoting his entire life to save others, by throwing himself into one hell after another without pause no less. If one were to follow this line of thought than Shirou Emiya had somehow prevented the reactor meltdown rather than cause it. Everyone who had studied that incident had claimed that it was nothing short of a miracle that the reactor hadn't exploded, so of course one would wonder how Emiya could have done something like that.

Clint barely noticed when the plane landed on the Helicarrier as he was to engrossed in the report in front of him. For if once he began to view Emiya's actions through such a lense Hawkeye couldn't help but be annoyed at his own blindness. Emiya had apparently build his entire life around doing the impossible, so it would actually make some kind of sense for him to prevent a catastrophe of this magnitude. The report read, he followed Black Widow across the flight deck and through the hallways of the Triskelion.

Mind still deep in thought. Even if one were to accept all these previous assumptions, and assumptions they mostly were. Then he still utterly failed to understand Emiya. Shirou Emiya who had thrown away any chance of a normal life to obsessively save people all around the world, without ever taking credit, ever accepting so much as thanks, or even without seeking to clear his name, had been executed for a crime he didn't commit.

A smile flashed through Clint's mind, that damned smile that wouldn't leave him alone. If all of that rang true, then he couldn't help but wonder just why Emiya would be… content, satisfied even in the moment of his execution. He couldn't help but feel that perhaps it was better for him to never understand such a man.

He felt himself answer Furys question essentially on autopilot, while the majority of his mind still tried to make sense of what he read, trying to find other ways to explain it. There were some but his gut told him that he already had his answer. That Emiya simply had been someone with incredible abilities dead set on making the world a better place, even if he had to kill countless people to do it.

Once the briefing was over, he turned to follow Widow out of the room only to be stopped by Fury. "Hawkeye, a word." He stopped once more and turned to look the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the eye. Fury in turn was mustering him as well. "Mind explaining to me why I got two whole teams of Analysts lying around sleep deprived?"

"I wanted them to check on a few things." He replied carefully, uncertain how to voice his own thoughts on the matter just yet.

"Regarding Emiya." It wasn't a question it was a statement of fact, and knowing his boss Fury had already read through the very same report Hawkeye had.

"Yes, sir." He finally settled on saying.

"Your own conclusion?"

"It… it flies in the face of logic." Hawkeye said after a moment of tense silence. "Assuming that anyone sane would do something like this for the sake of total strangers without ulterior thoughts is crazy."

"However." Fury prompted him arms crossed across his chest as he glowered at Hawkeye.

"However, given what we know it is the explanation that makes the most sense." Clint told him and hesitated before he continued. "Provided there isn't someone else ordering Emiya around."

"Exactly." Fury agreed with him and his expression became even more severe. "My theory, we cannot see the real target behind all those actions, but the fact remains that someone with a lot of influence and power prevented anyone from studying Emiya's body. I think they're the ones behind all this. Only someone with a lot of power could have accomplished something like that. Emiya must have been their agent."

Hawkeye hesitated, the notion made a lot of sense but he couldn't help but feel that Emiya genuinely had wanted to help people and hadn't been involved in such a shadowy plot. Some of his thoughts must have shown on his face because Fury continued. "Perhaps Emiya had no idea about their real motives and was just an asset they used and manipulated to their heart's content but I can't believe that anyone would do such things on their own free will without some kind of higher goal."

Hawkeye couldn't say that he didn't feel the same way, before he got the chance to agree however Fury fixed him with a quick glance. "That will be all, dismissed."

Hawkeye left, and Fury glanced at one of the holographic screens, his mind already trying to come up with ways to combat this new, unseen fraction should they prove to be a threat.

 **Author Notes:**

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _Wow, I'll be honest I never actually planned on making a second chapter for this. Didn't think anyone would even want one, so after I was proven utterly wrong I couldn't help but at least play around with the idea. And suddenly Eureka! Once Inspiration struck I began writing and one thing lead to another._

 _I don't know if this chapter is what you've been hoping for but it seemed right to write it this way instead of forcing in more characters of Fate just for the sake of it. I hope you enjoyed it at least and answered hopefully some of your questions._

 _Also I hope you can forgive me my undoubtedly present grammatical and spelling errors. I am dyslexic I am afraid. Still, hopefully it doesn't dampen your enjoyment of this too much._


	3. Chapter 3: A Fool's Errand

**Chapter 3: A Fool's Errand**

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _First I would like to thank_ _ **mx2432**_ _and_ _ **shadyxlr**_ _for giving me the idea for this chapter, and for convincing me to continue this story as well as helping me lore wise respectively. Without further ado let's get started._

Rin waited impatiently among the crowd. Their incessant whispers taxing her self-restraint as she waited for Shirou to appear. She had warned him, she warned him so often and yet he never cared. Saying that as long as he could save even one more life it would be worth it. All the years of pain he endured, everything he did, it all came to nothing as the very people he sought to protect turned on him, made him into a scapegoat and executed him to cover up their own atrocities. Shirou Emiya was without a doubt a fool, but he was still her friend.

A friend she would never agree with and who was so twisted by what he've been through that she could never fully understand him, but a friend nonetheless. Rin wouldn't give up on her friend, she could save him, just like he had helped her save Sakura. Yet even as she thought this she couldn't help but feel anxious, as if she had forgotten something. As she waited and her anxiousness became even worse the crowd became even more restless.

She let out a sigh, it seemed Shirou was in real trouble this time considering the sheer amount of weapons among the attendance. Truthfully Rin didn't particularly mind, this way she would be able to let loose without worrying about innocents too much. Despite the situation Rin couldn't help but feel curious, Shirou must have caught their interest in some fashion. She felt certain that even he wouldn't be foolish enough to reveal magecraft to others, so it had to be something else. Perhaps his sheer skill, or perhaps he had managed to actually impede all of them in some form or another. She would have to question him about that after she rescued him.

At long last he finally entered the room, accompanied by dozens of soldiers. He looked different from the last time she saw him, the last of his red hair had faded into white, and his eyes had become silver, no traces of their original color remaining. He wore white rough prisoner overalls instead of the armor she had helped him craft years ago. In an attempt to keep her friend alive she agreed to aid him with his fool's errand. She had never imagined it would get this far though, or perhaps she did but just didn't want to see it.

She just knew that she wanted to save him, to keep him a bit longer from Alayas grasp. She had been horrified when he admitted to her that he sold his afterlife with a smile for the sake of others. Adamant in his assertion that as long as he was able to save even one more person it would be worth it. She had no doubt that he truly believed that, but she knew that in the end it would break him even more than he already was.

So here she was, on a fool's errand to save a fool. She had already grasped her pendant when his eyes found hers. For but a moment she swore that she saw an expression of surprise taking form on his face before it disappeared so fast that she couldn't help but wonder whether or not it had been there at all. His silver eyes gazed deeply into her own aqua ones and with a miniscule shake of his head he denied her. Rin froze, as all her carefully laid out plans shattered before her very eyes. He hadn't needed saving, he had simply decided that his continued life wasn't worth all those lives he would have to end to escape. She released her her pendant and clenched her fists as she allowed her hands to fall to her sides.

The signs had been right before her all along, she had seen them, but had refused to comprehend them. Shirou didn't want to be saved, he never had, all he had cared about was saving others. To follow his thrice damned ideals. A single tear slid down Rins face, she had called Shirou a fool more times than she could count, but in this moment she couldn't help but wonder what that made her.

Shirou calmly marched towards the gallows towards his death, and the doom that would follow, guards on either side of him. The procession came to a stop and as a guard behind him pulled out a rough black cloth Shirou closed his eyes and smiled. Rin hated that smile as it showed her one last time just how distorted and broken her friend truly was. How foolish she had been to hope that she could keep him from this path. The smile was hidden from view when the cloth was pulled over his head, shortly followed by the noose.

Rin wanted to act, to defy Shirou but knew that he wouldn't accept it. If she were to defy him now, she knew, she would become his enemy instead an enemy to his ideals of justice. Thus she stayed her hand, defying her own desires to jump in and save him or turn and look away. If she couldn't save her friend she could at the very least witness his last moments in life, no matter how hard it was. Seeing Shirou die was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, even her training under Zelretch up to this point seemed to pale in comparison to the feeling she had when she heard Shirou's neck snap.

It wasn't the first time she had seen someone die, far from it, she had seen far worse things than mere death in her life after all. But this time it was far more personal than most other times she had seen death. However if she was being honest with herself then she knew that Shirou's death wasn't the worst part, but rather the knowledge that now he would have to serve Alaya for eternity and what it would do to him was.

She watched as the body of her friend was separated from the cord that had ended his life and transferred onto a gurney. She starred after it for a moment before she took a deep breath a plan taking form within her mind. She hadn't been able to save him, but she wouldn't allow Sakura and Taiga to grieve over an empty casket. Even as she decided to do so she couldn't help but wonder if she didn't delude herself into thinking that she was doing so for their sake, while in truth she only did what she could to assuage the guilt she felt.

She decided that her motivations were insubstantial, she had already settled on a course of action, her reasons no longer mattered. She made her way through the crowd, most of them still staring after the gurney or talking furiously with one another or unseen partners. Indubitably they were laying their own plans right now, which meant they were competition. Which just meant Rin had to be faster, she stepped outside of the room and took a deep breath. Turning her eyes to the nearest guard she sent him a smile that lacked any warmth and allowed supernatural persuasion to flow through her voice. "Could you tell me how to reach the morgue?"

The man's eyes glazed over as he looked at her and he lifted an arm pointing down the hallway behind him. "Right this way, turn right at the next intersection and follow the hallway, you can't miss it."

"Thank you." She muttered lowly as she stepped past him. "Forget you ever saw and talked to me, I was never here." She barely heard his acknowledgment as she marched down the corridor, sending a look at the cameras she saw in the corner she would need to take care of those as well.

It was moments like this were Rin wished she had access to powers like the Masters of the Mystic Arts had. Their ability to channel energies from other dimensions was certainly useful, but at the same time channeling these alien energies changed them, made it impossible for them to use any form of magecraft, true magic or even reach the Root. Of course some would argue that they hardly had to with the power at their command, and if nothing but power was ones motivation for reaching the Root, then Rin would be inclined to agree. Though most magi desired knowledge rather than simple power, those simple differences had been enough to cause a division in the mystical world.

She dismissed the distracting thoughts and marched on, just as instructed she took a right turn at the intersection and came face to face with two other guards, who barely had enough time to so much as twitch before both of them were thrown to the ground by a gandr. Groaning in surprised pain they had no hope to resist as she once more got to work. Altering their memories and sending them to delete every last bit of the camera footage.

She had thought about only using the elder one while allowing his younger companion to resume his patrol but she decided to use both of them in case they met more serious resistance than she had anticipated. She didn't linger long afterwards and made to move onwards once more when her ears picked up the sound of quiet, but determined steps, she had spent enough time at social gatherings to recognize the sound of high heels, which meant that whoever was coming wasn't a guard.

Which of course either meant it was a civilian employer, unlikely, or someone who had been in attendance just like her, and who possessed their own interest in Shirou's body. She could potentially kill them, subdue them and make them forget everything or, and in her mind that was the most attractive option, use them for her own purposes. Nothing extreme of course just a bit of additional manpower.

She couldn't suppress the feeling of vindictive satisfaction when the red haired woman's eyes first widend miniscule, only to become cloudy when she began speaking. "Hello there, are you looking for Shirou Emiya's body?"

"I-" The woman stopped briefly, fighting against the influence of the hypnosis to Rins surprise before the last embers of defiance vanished from her eyes and she nodded. "Yes." Just as she had expected, after all what other reason could someone have to go to the morgue. The woman was breathtakingly beautiful, but her appearance couldn't hide her defined muscles. Rin was certain that this woman knew how to handle herself in a fight. If necessary she would use that, if other agents showed up to claim Shirou she wouldn't face them alone.

"I was going to see it myself, come along." Rin told her, careful to keep an eye on the willful woman, her words an incentive to follow without attempts at fighting her influence. "Are you alone?" She asked slyly, recalling what she knew about Enforcers and the Modus Operandi of other combat units. The silent shake of her head was a start but she needed more. "How many more?" If she had to guess not more than three others, smaller teams had an easier time staying undetected.

"One." The red haired woman replied monotonously.

"Don't warn him in any shape or form about me." Rin ordered her as she subtly reinforced her body in case of a sudden attack. Truth be told she probably would face an easier time herself if she had brought a partner with her, though she couldn't even name someone who could fit the bill. Sakura was out of the question, she had suffered more than enough, she wouldn't risk her little sisters well-being any further. The face of Edelfelt flashed through her mind and her mood soured somewhat.

She couldn't deny that Luvia was talented and intelligent, furthermore they got along better than they did when they first met. However that wasn't saying much, the two of them still weren't able to establish a relationship that could even be remotely described as harmonious. Getting her mind back on track she glanced at her near acquaintance. "Where is he or she?"

"He is in the air ducts."

Rin blinked at that, surprised, she had always thought that air ducts only got used in movies to conventialy allow the heroes a place to hide, get away of infiltrate. Shrugging she came to a stop before the morgues door, she took a deep breath, and pushed them open, marching in eyes scanning the room.

No living soul inside, only a shrouded body on one of the autopsy tables, and only one air duct in the middle of the room. She was very much tempted to just get Shirou out of here, but she'd rather wait a moment to make sure that she wasn't seen while doing so. With a abrupt hand gesture she ordered the woman to move towards the covered body, and thus the air duct while she stepped into one of the badly lit corners.

It didn't take long for her reinforced hearing to take notice of the red heads approaching partner. The muffled sound of his body on the metal as well as his breathing were audible to her, albeit barely, an impressive display of his skill no doubt. Silently the cover of the air duct was removed, and she doubted that she would have noticed it if she hadn't been watching it intently.

The appearance of the man was the opposite of the subtle hidden lethality the woman displayed. His armored form, tense muscles, and weapons made it clear that he was here as back up in case anything should go wrong. "Widow?" His voice rang out, filled with caution and confusion, Rin began to move, the slight noise of her movement enough to alert the man as he whirled around. By then it was already to late of course, and thus he was the fifth person she hypnotized in short succession.

She let out an annoyed huff, the man had been fast enough to pull his pistol out of his holster, an impressive achievement even if her reinforced body would have been able to take the bullet with only mild discomfort the noise would have alerted everyone within the building. "You two, make sure no one comes in here undetected, subdue them, kill them if necessary." She ordered them as she moved towards the autopsy table. Given their profession she assumed that the two of them would have a an easier time countering any infiltration attempts. If she used their strengths she would make things easier for herself as well.

The man disappeared back up into the air ducts, while the woman moved towards the door, Rin chose to ignore them as she stepped right beside the table and pulled back the covers. The peaceful smile of Shirou Emiya greeted her, the smile she had hated so much earlier had faded into a far more peaceful expression and one that she infinitely prefered. She took everything in with a quick glance, the odd shape of his broken neck, the white clothes in which he had been executed, and a small black cloth on his chest, most likely his personal possessions. There couldn't have been many, and she had little doubt that those that were deemed valuable such as his armor were already being analyzed somewhere.

She opened the bag nonetheless, only to recoil in shock. An all too familiar pendant had been revealed, she couldn't stop herself from looking at Shirou's face, the pendant and back again. She had never known that he had kept it, she had simply assumed it lost after she had left it next to his body on that fateful night all these years ago. The realization that he had it with him all this time unleashed a whole torrent of emotions within her, and she felt a single tear sliding down her face before she got herself under control.

It would have been kinder to leave him for dead all those years ago. Instead she rescued him and brought upon him years of pain and suffering, and yet it had been his own choice. The same damn dedication that she had once upon a time truly admired before she had learned to despise and hate it. She clenched her teeth and got to work, she didn't have time to reminisce.

She prepared Shirou for transport, moving him into a casket like case, which probably was meant to prevent decomposition from setting in and moved said case onto a gurney, though she did take the time to put his meager belongings into there as well. They had brought Shirou in from somewhere which meant that they must have transported him, thus it was only logical to assume that they had a garage. She would use that to her own advantage. "Do you know where the Garage is?" She asked the woman as she pushed the gurney towards the door.

"Yes."

"Lead me there, tell your partner to follow us." She ordered her and moved on, the woman dutifully fulfilling her commands. Telling this 'Hawkeye' to follow them from above. 'Widow' and 'Hawkeye', codenames no doubt and yet it didn't help her in figuring out what their interest in Shirou was. Deciding to just be direct about it she turned to 'Widow'. "Who are you working for."

"S.H.I.E.L.D." The red haired woman answered as she quietly observed how Rin took her Pendant into her hands.

" _Feuer. Flammen. Verzehrt!_ " Rin muttered harshly and tossed the Gem into the Morgue. An instant later the floor was covered in blue flames that were reached up to the ceiling, already the heat was beginning to warp everything within sight. It would erase any evidence of her presence in the room, as well as make for a nice distraction Rin decided. "What does that acronym stand for?"

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." Was the prompt reply and Rin suppressed a sigh, it was as she had feared. Neither the acronym nor the full name meant anything to her, she would have to inform the higher ups of the mage association about the intervention of S.H.I.E.L.D. perhaps they would be more familiar with them. Though she had little doubt that Zelretch was already aware of them, the old man knew far more than he let on after all.

As she followed the red haired spy through the hallways she was happy to note that her little distraction had worked even better than she had first assumed. The alarm was blaring loudly, the building was already being evacuated, and thus they met no resistance. Sophisticated security measures in case of a fire were only prudent after all, if utterly unneeded in this case.

Nonetheless they moved swiftly through the deserted hallways, there would only so much time before someone noticed that the fire wasn't spreading, and even if that wasn't the case fire fighters would sooner or later show up.

All such thoughts faded from her mind when she finally reached the garage. Few vehicles remained at the time but she didn't care as she marched towards a black van in the middle of the room. She didn't even react when the second agent once more dropped from the air ducts and took up a position behind her.

She glanced at the two agents in contemplation as she pushed the case into the vans back, closing the doors with loud bang. The two of them belonged to a organization she had never of before, from what she had been able to observe they were well trained, and whoever backed them had enough influence to smuggle the woman in as an official representative.

It would probably be safer for her to dispose of the two of them, tie up any loose ends before moving on but she hesitated in doing so. She was confident enough in her own skills to be certain that they wouldn't be able to remember anything once she allowed the hypnotism to fade so killing them would be a waste. Additionally if this organization was actually aware of the moonlit world it would make relations tedious if it ever came to light that two of their operatives had been killed by her hands.

Furthermore, she still could make use of them. She had no doubt that 'Widows' disappearance had been noted by others in the attendance, so perhaps so having her appear so shortly after the start of the fire might deflect some of the blame unto the woman. She got in the driver's seat, and was pleasantly surprised to find the keys still in the ignition. She turned to the two agents, both still keeping silent watch while she worked. "Open the garage door, then head west, take the backstreets, until you reach the cafe on the open plaza. Sit down, order a coffee, wait for a few moments, scribble down a gibberish note on a napkin and hide it under your plate. Afterwards… you'll wake up."

She had come up with most of that on the spot, but she hoped that at least some people would try to make sense of a supposedly secret code on the napkin. All the while observing the wrong targets, of course she had no delusions that she wouldn't be watched as she herself turned east but at least they would have to split up.

She would probably have to change vehicles in between, before moving towards the airport, hypnotising yet more people and get Shirou's body and herself back to Fuyuki. Afterwards… afterwards she had a funeral to organize… and then she'd have to inform the Association about what had occured here.

She had little doubt that she would be chastised, perhaps even condemned, for her actions here but she didn't mind. She had endured far worse already after all. She doubted than anyone would agree with her assessment, with the exception perhaps from her eccentric mentor, but the world was changing. They'd have to adapt, or face the consequences.

 **Author Notes:**

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I am still uncertain about the precise capabilities and mechanics of hypnosis here so I simply decided to make it similar to the one scene in Fate/Zero where Kiritsugu walks up to a police officer and uses it._

 _That said I have to address one guest review, which is something I typically try to avoid. Dear guest who criticized_ _ **Dragoon740's**_ _review._

 _First of all I would like to point out that the purpose of a review is to criticize the story itself, not other reviewers. Although I suppose such could be forgiven if your review was more than just criticizing someone else_ _ **and**_ _you actually have an account to PM. This way the offended party has a chance to defend itself without starting a discussion in the review section. So I would appreciate it dear guest if you could keep from unnecessary rude commentary in the future._

 _Have a nice day all of you._


	4. Chapter 4: Dead Man Walking

**Chapter 4: Dead Man Walking**

When the leader of an international company goes missing people take notice. Especially if said company was responsible for producing all kinds of military grade weapons. Add to that the fact that Tony Stark was abducted after a sudden attack on his convoy, resulting in the death of most of the security detail it was only natural that S.H.I.E.L.D. was concerned. However, when Tony Stark miraculously managed to escape from captivity with relatively light injuries they became far more suspicious.

Even though it was a relief for them to know that the famous weapon manufacturer was no longer in the hands of terrorists they couldn't deny the possibility that the man might have been turned and sent back as a mole. After all Stark Industries had sold weapons on the black market before his abduction, Tony Stark could decide to support his former captors in a more efficient manner.

This theory however broke apart the moment Stark declared that he intended to stop the manufacture of all military hardware. This declaration shattered any theories S.H.I.E.L.D. had considered upon his return. Strictly speaking, it flew in the face of logic. Stark had made lots of money with the production of military hardware. To cease their productions would mean a huge loss in profits. Their analysts agreed that Stark Industries could take the losses and continue on as long as they found new products to produce, though the question remained as to why he would do so in the first place.

A curious case indeed, though Natasha could hardly see any reason why Fury would call both Hawkeye and her back to the Triskelion over it. As the two marched through the corridors alongside each other they didn't talk. They had little need to do so, having already said anything of import and were now content to silently ponder over matters. It had been almost a year since the last time the two of them had teamed up, yet she knew that there was no need to interrupt Clints thoughts in order to catch up. He had kept an eye on her activities just as she had done the same to him of that she was certain.

Knowing this she couldn't help but wonder if Fury had recalled them because of their last mission. She didn't know why he would do so. The mission had been a dead end, quite literality in regards to their target. To make matters worse all subsequent investigations had failed to identify or even find a lead in regards to the mysterious ambusher who had managed to get the drop on them.

The doors slid open to allow them into Fury's office, the man in question standing behind his desk, back turned towards them as he looked at various displays and reports. The two of them came to a stop right before his desk, the doors sliding shut behind them as they waited for Fury to acknowledge their presence.

"Less than a week ago Tony Stark managed to escape from captivity and was eventually found by the search parties who had been on a look out for him." Fury began, slowly turning around to spare them a glance. "He had little to say about his time in captivity and how he escaped… though the preliminary investigation could already conclude one thing. He lied." His single eye fixed them for a few moments before he continued. "Although his story allowed us to locate multiple outposts and camps of the terrorist group who had captured him, all within range to intercept him should he try to flee. Except that didn't happen."

"Why is that?" Hawkeye questioned and stared at Fury in confusion. "They went through all the trouble to get this guy, so why let him slip away?"

"An excellent question." Fury acknowledged with a slight nod. "However, I got a better one. Though he was alone when he was found, and there was no trace of human life in the vicinity Stark insisted that someone had helped to get as far as he did, that kept him alive in the desert. At first we assumed that he had simply been delirious. That is until he offered us a detailed description." He threw an open folder onto his desk, the composite sketch presented to them was eerily familiar as the face of Shirou Emiya stared at them. "What I would like to know is how a dead man can still walk around saving people."

The two of them stared at the sketch, startled. Natasha herself could feel confusion and apprehension well up within her. She had seen Emiya die, or at least that is what she had assumed. However now it looked like Hawkeyes and her own failure was even greater than they had dared to fear. Her partners himself was staring at the picture in shock as well, she knew that the mission had left a greater mark on him then her, so this must have been even more difficult for him.

"What is this?" Clint muttered and stared at Fury. "I saw that man die… how-"

"That's what I want to know." Fury cut him of, face grave. "So far we always assumed that Shirou Emiya died that day. Now though we aren't so sure anymore. Although we have various theories."

"I guess the most likely is that it was not Emiya that died but someone who took his place, and the body was taken to cover up that fact." Natasha threw in, her mind racing with possibilities. If that was the case the question that presented itself to them was why he would reveal himself now. The world had assumed him dead, so it made little sense to undo all the effort it took to ensure that.

"That is indeed the leading theory." Fury agreed impassively, his single eye piercing them with its intense stare. "Of course there are also more unlikely ones such as a twin, or even a clone that has taken up the mantel."

"Of course the second best is that we lied, isn't it?" Clint questioned shrewdly, annoyance clearly visible on his face. "Since there was nothing to be gained from the camera footage or through the forensics our word is all you got. So I assume more than a few analysts suggested that we actually went rogue?"

"Correct." Fury admitted easily, seemingly unbothered by the mounting annoyance and frustration in Hawkeyes stance nor the fact that the accusation was made in the first place. "Now, truth be told it would make sense. But I had them analyse your past missions, all of them and aside from that one time there is no indication of even the possibility of disloyalty." Fury stated completely unapologetic over what he did. Natasha could understand that, this wasn't the line of work to let yourself be stopped by something as nebulous as a gut feeling. Hawkeye was less forgiving if his facial expression was anything to go by but he didn't say more as he waited for Fury to continue. "During the interrogation Stark was able to give a precise description of Emiya's face and clothes, which were identical to the combat armour of unknown make he used to wear. This precise description was one of the reasons why we took his account seriously."

"One of the reasons?" Natasha questioned and narrowed her eyes at the wording.

"Yes, another one were the terrorist hideouts." Fury revealed and pressed a button. Images began to appear in rapid succession on the various screens all across the room. Each and everyone of them showed various locations, and the inhabitants of all of these lied dead on the ground. Blood pooled around their corpses even as various entry and exit wounds were visible on their bodies. "It's the same in every location that could have moved to intercept Stark during his escape. They were all slain, and from what our experts were able to gather in an incredibly small time window."

"How small was that time window?" Hawkeye questioned as his eyes stared at the images shown to them. Natasha did the same, she had to admit that more than one sight reminded her of Emiyas handiwork before he got caught.

"Hard to narrow down but the best estimate we have right now is that in less than two hours all the camps were annihilated… which should have been impossible given the distance between some of them." Fury told them an annoyed making its way onto his face. "Which means that it was either a nearly simultaneous attack by multiple highly skilled teams or individuals… or-"

"Or Emiya, provided it is truly him, managed to do the impossible yet again." Natasha threw in knowing exactly where Fury was going with this. Emiya had done the impossible before, if he truly was back then there no reason to assume he wouldn't be able to pull of impossible feats yet again.

"Exactly." Fury agreed solemnly as he turned his gaze to the screens and the carnage displayed on them. "It could be Emiya, or perhaps its whoever is associated with him, another agent, but there had to be a reason why they saved Stark."

"So what's the plan?" Hawkeye threw in and crossed his arms across his chest. His entire stance practically screaming that he wasn't happy about this turn of events. Truth be told neither was Natasha, or anyone else at S.H.I.E.L.D. she assumed.

"I sent Coulson to interrogate Stark again, he is hiding something from us." Fury stated darkly, his eye staring down at the files in front of him. "I want to know what. You two however have a different mission." Without another word he handed the two of them a couple of folders and sat down in his chair as he mustered them while they skimmed through the contents.

Rin Tohsaka, Sakura Matou, Illyasviel von Einzbern, Kiritsugu Emiya and Taiga Fujimura, those were names she was already familiar with. Most of them they had come across when they began to look into Shirou, although his deceased father had already been known to them beforehand.

Once S.H.I.E.L.D. had begun to develop an interest in Shirou Emiya they had looked into his past. What they found had been frustratingly little, the first traces appeared after the great fire that had consumed a large potion of Fuyuki City. Following the trail from there they had discovered that the boy who would become known as Shirou Emiya had been adopted by Kiritsugu Emiya in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

Afterwards there was nothing that actually stood out about the boy, safe for the fact that he was known to help around school and was part of the archery club for a while. After the demise of his adoptive father a teacher at the local school, Taiga Fujimura had begun to look after the boy. Even at this time he was already familiar and a close friend with Sakura Matou.

Rin Tohsaka and Illyasviel von Einzbern entered the picture only later towards the end of his education in Fuyuki. The exact relation between the two females was unknown, provided there was even one to discover, but both of them came into the picture at the same time. Apparently both of them befriending Shirou, even though the latter died shortly before Shirou left Fuyuki behind.

Tohsaka on the other hand accompanied him to London, where they stayed for a year. Before Emiya left the metropolis behind and began to travel the world. "So we are looking into Emiya again." Natasha stated rather than asked as she sent a glance at Fury before returning her eyes to the files before her.

"When he died we assumed the case closed, when we failed to find a trail we assumed that we wouldn't have any luck finding his benefactors. Now that he seemingly has returned we'll try to find out if any of his acquaintances know anything. The idea was dismissed the last time after a brief check up on them, now we aren't so sure anymore." Fury explained, his face a blank mask that gave none of his thoughts away. "The von Einzbern family is… reclusive, so it will be hard to find a lead through them, provided none of the others cant tell us anything useful in regards to Emiya or the Einzberns. Furthermore we cannot foreclose that Kiritsugu Emiya himself has had connection to the same people who we assumed order his adoptive son around."

"How likely is it that they know anything though?" Hawkeye cut in, evidently sceptic of the benefit this mission could provide them with.

"Unknown, what we do know however is that Emiya disappeared at times, times where we had been unable to locate him. It is possible that he met up with his friends, or contacts during that time. Given that they are currently our only lead I say it's the best chance we got." Their leader muttered, his gaze daring them to disagree with that logic. "Tohsaka seems to live in London, most of the time, though she is known to travel to Fuyuki City multiple times a year. According to our informants she is currently in Fuyuki City, seems to be spending time with both Matou and Fujimura."

"And if they all don't know anything?" Natasha couldn't help but ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Then we haven't lost anything." Fury shot back evenly. "There is the possibility that none of them know anything, it seems even likely, but provided that they do know something we cannot allow that to escape our grasp just because we deemed it unlikely."

"Got it." Hawkeye muttered and tossed his own folders back unto Fury's desk. "I say we start with Taiga Fujimura, she has known him the longest, so she should know him best." He concluded and looked at Natasha. "That okay with you?"

"A reasonable start." She agreed with him. "According to that logic we should question Matou afterwards, and Tohsaka last before we look into more obscure connections regarding von Einzbern and Kiritsugu."

"Sounds like you two already got a plan." Fury noted, and for the first time since the meeting began he sounded even remotely pleased. "Dismissed."

 **End Notes:** _ **Nomad-117:**_ _Well, I managed to write a little chapter at least. I apologize if it isn't what you were hoping for, most likely it isn't. Though currently I have a vague idea for future chapters and decided that this was a good way to get things moving in that direction. That said, I'm afraid to say that I won't be updating this story in the near future. I fear that along with the fact that I don't want to rush this I have real life concerns that will demand my attention in the next few weeks. For some of my other stories I already prepared a couple of chapters that can be uploaded during that time._

 _Also a quick shout-out to_ _ **shadyxlr**_ _who managed to give me an idea as to how to make Counter Guardian Emiya have an appearance that didn't involve murdering everything in sight._

 _That said, I apologize for all the spelling errors I indubitably made. Perhaps it is not the best idea to write things in the middle of the night after a long day._


	5. Chapter 5: Those Left Behind

**Chapter 5: Those Left Behind**

Clint stopped the car at the side of the road to gather a better view of the town below them. Fuyuki City, in and of itself didn't appear to be anything special. It was separated into two sections by the river Mion. According to the information they had been given the the two halves could be considered separate towns, with one being known as Shinto City while the other is known as Miyama City, the new and old sections of the town. The two sections are connected by a bright red bridge that spanned the river.

Perhaps it wasn't as most cities were, but at the end of the day Fuyuki City didn't appear to be anything special. Certainly nothing that could explain how Emiya managed to do what he did, where he learned his skills. Though it was believed that perhaps part of his initial training had been under the tutelage of the local Yakuza. Taiga Fujimura had had ties to the former leader, one Raiga Fujimura. Her grandfather by adoption, details were scarce but Shirou Emiya had accompanied the man multiple times onto hunting trips and the like.

Before Raiga Fujimura died of old age at least, and Shirou eventually moved away. As S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't been able to discover anything about Shirou Emiya before his sudden appearance in the aftermath of the great fire that destroyed a large part of the city people had theorized that Kiritsugu had taken him in much earlier. Essentially raising him from birth to be a killer, though that seemed unlikely given his early days of traveling across the world. Following his footsteps had revealed that he didn't start out scarily competent.

Perhaps he hadn't been utterly green at the start but he had still been very much lacking in experience. Over the years he had perfected his methods more and more. Becoming ever more efficient as his travels brought him from one place to the next. Still, it seemed most likely that if there was anything to explain his behaviour and the impossibilities he seemed to be capable of, it would be found in his former home.

"You got the address?" Widow asked from the passenger seat as she too mustered the city below them.

"Yeah." He said simply, it had been a rhetorical question, they knew far more than just the address of Taiga Fujimura. He had read through her whole daily routine at one point. Despite her ties to the Yakuza the woman seemed rather harmless, there was little that indicated that she might be a danger aside of course from her experience with a bokken, in her younger years she had been famous for her prowess in Kendo. And as interested as he was in getting to the bottom of this there was something else he had in mind. "I figured we could drop by his home before we visit her." He didn't need to say whose house he meant and Natasha sent him a quick glance before her eyes returned to the sight before them.

"What for?" She asked simply.

"The home of someone can tell you a lot of things." He shot back, even as he kept all the reasons why this probably wasn't the case here to himself. There was no need to voice them. Natasha was just as aware of them as he was. They knew for a fact that no one new had moved in, yet. Though anything of import could have been taken a long time ago. Destroyed to remove evidence, hidden somewhere, or it never existed in the first place.

"Lets go." The Black Widow eventually told him and nodded towards the city. "Let's take a look at our man's home." He let out a small breath he hadn't been aware he had been holding as he started the car back up and continued towards their destination.

It didn't take long for them to enter the city proper. The newer buildings passing by first, the style was certainly more modern but Hawkeye couldn't help but feel that they simply looked like concrete blocks. Little thought wasted on their appearance as people had been more focused on building them as quickly as possible, especially in the aftermath of the fire.

It was only when they entered the older parts of the city that the buildings became more diverse. If anything he would call the older parts almost homely. They certainly had their charm he had to admit as he stopped the car in front of a small gate. The entrance to the Emiya estate if one wanted to call it that.

He got out of the car, Natasha right behind him as he made his way through the small gate and towards the door. He didn't hesitate to ring the bell. No one answered, not that he had expected anyone but it was always good to check. Without wasting another moment he pulled out a lockpick and went to work. It took him mere seconds to open the door and the two of them stepped into the darkened house.

"Let's look around." He suggested softly and carefully made his way through the corridor. Fujimura evidently still took care of the estate, there were no signs of dust collecting anywhere. According to their information Taiga still regularly came to this house, so it seemed reasonable that it was her that kept everything going. Of course that begged the question why she would bother.

If she had inherited the house after Shirou Emiya's death, then why hadn't she sold it, or at the very least moved in? He would be sure to ask her once they met up with her. Given that she was still working as a teacher she wouldn't be home just yet. Which meant they had a little time yet to explore. The house had everything someone needed to live, and many things that one didn't need.

The living room was kept in a traditional Japanese style. A low table without chairs, additionally an older TV model stood near the table, and the kitchen while in supreme condition appeared desolate. As unused as the rest of the house. The rooms were fully furnished, though in some cases there were no beds in them but rather futon mats.

In addition to the part of the house that was obviously meant for living there was a small if well kept courtyard. There were many plants there that Clint didn't recognize, which was good enough for him. He had been trained to recognize all those that could be used to create a toxin of one kind or another. As he walked across the green, intent to reach what appeared to be a seperate building he took note of small shed. He hesitated and changed direction to enter it first.

The door creaked open and he couldn't help but cough lightly as dust rose into the air. Obviously the care that went into the rest of the building didn't extend to this one. The only light available seemed to be the one streaming in from the opened door. Abandoned it might be, but there was still order beneath the dust.

Tools or various kinds were sorted by their kind and size on the walls. A blanket with spots of spilled oil was neatly folded in the lower reachers of a shelve opposite of him. It seemed like once upon a time someone had used this shed to repair machinery, and given its desolate state in comparison to the rest of the estate he was willing to bet that it had been Emiya.

His gaze wandered over the room one last time before he would move on. He stopped, part of a shape was barely visible on the floor beneath the dirt and grime, most of it hidden by neatly stacked boxes. He moved towards it, and didn't hesitate to push the boxes away with a strained grunt. They had been heavy, undoubtedly filled with various parts of machinery. He looked downwards and frowned.

A half faded circle had become visible, symbols unknown to him were part of the inner circle and yet he could safely say that in all his time as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had he never seen anything like this. He pulled out a small hand held camera and snapped pictures from all angels he could possibly think of.

Afterwards he pulled the boxed back into place. Once they were done here someone else could try to decipher the meaning of this strange circle. In the meantime he closed the door behind him and approached the larger building that had been his original target. As he entered he couldn't help but blink in surprise. It was a large spacious dojo, shinai were neatly placed in a stack along the wall. Perhaps it had been here where Shirou Emiya had first learned how to fight.

It seemed an as reasonably assumption as any other. He had grown up under the tutelage of a known killer, and someone who was very experienced in Kendo and had ties to the Yakuza after all. If anything it seemed unreasonable to assume that none of his guardians and acquaintances taught him anything.

His musings were cut short by a startled scream that came from the entrance. It hadn't been Natasha but he hurried there nonetheless. He knew that the Black Widow could take care of herself, but people involved with Emiya had gotten the drop on them once before. So he wasted no time in pulling a pistol out of a hidden holster as he made his way to the front door.

He came around the corner, weapon raised in preparation, to come across a peculiar sight. A Japanese woman, in what he assumed to be late forties perhaps early fifties, held onto an umbrella and brandished it like a sword as she glared at Widow who had taken a few steps back and tried her best to placate the woman even as her opponent kept shouting at her in angry Japanese.

He slowly lowered his weapon, that certainly wasn't how he had envisioned meeting Taiga Fujimura, and now that he got a proper look on her face he could easily identify her. Which would also explain why Widow hadn't simply subdued the intruder by now. According to their information she was an English teacher at Homurahara Academy, which was good because at the moment only Natasha was able to understand her angry shouts.

"Taiga Fujimura." He said, the tirade pausing as she realized that the two intruders knew her name. "I am Agent Clive Banton of S.H.I.E.L.D., this is my colleague Natalia Rushmore, we have a few questions for you." He told her calmly as he flashed his 'badge' so to speak. He could see that she was both surprised and confused by this, just as he had planned. He had no interest in prolonging their stay by unnecessary arguments so he took control of the situation once more, trying to keep her to unbalanced to mount a proper defence. "When was the last time you saw or spoke to Shirou Emiya?"

Confusion and grief welled up in her light brown eyes as she stared at him, umbrella still in hand. "What?" She muttered, it was all too clear that she hadn't expected such a question. At least this long after his death. As he looked at her now he couldn't help but think that she didn't look one bit like the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss. She looked positively vulnerable.

Then a fire lit in her eyes as her legs switched into a more battle ready position and the grip on the Umbrella changed miniscule. The woman he had just thought vulnerable now appeared anything but. She seemed ready and perhaps even intent on attacking them if things didn't change. "Who are you people? Why are you in this house? Who let you in? On wha-"

"We are agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha cut in, not allowing the other woman to finish her barrage of questions. "We are here because we are investigating Shirou Emiya, and you are an important witness in that investigation."

"Shirou is dead." Fujimura rasped out, sadness glimmering behind the anger in her eyes. "What else do you need to know?"

"Perhaps… we could sit down first? This conversation shouldn't be held in the entrance hall." Clint offered and she sent a small glare in his direction in response.

"Right, please make yourselves at home." She muttered and he couldn't help but feel like a fifth grader that was being scolded. He also noticed that she yet hat to let go of the umbrella in her hand. Not that it would do her much good against the two of them but if it helped her stay calm he wouldn't complain.

The short walk from the entrance hall to the living room was made in tense silence, a silence that refused to disperse even after they had sat down around the low dinner table. Taiga Fujimura evidently had no intention of restarting this conversation. He couldn't blame her, this hadn't been how he had hoped to meet her either. Now that she had caught them so to speak she was undoubtedly more hostile than she otherwise would have been.

"Lets try this again." He muttered lowly before he did his best to pin her down with a stoic glare. "When did you last see or speak with Shirou Emiya?"

"The last time I saw him was…" She paused and cocked her head in thought, Natasha and Clint were watching her every move, looking for any sign of a lie. "Three years ago… he was here briefly." No signs of a lie only signs of sorrow and regret as she said that. "I spoke with him… shortly before he died… he called to make sure everything was alright."

"I see…" He said with a nod and made a few notes, when he was finished he looked up at her again. "You are keeping this house in shape, cleaned and everything." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact.

"Sakura and I do, yes." She agreed slowly, evidently not knowing what to make of that.

"Why haven't you moved in? Or sold it? It is evident that no one has lived here for quite some time." He asked her simply, if Emiya was indeed still somehow alive it would be possible that those in the know still took care of his belongings, but why take that risk? It would have been easier to just start some new life elsewhere, or at least let his former belongings go to waste to help sell the illusion, and even if one disregarded all that, why still come back when the whole world thought you were dead, and you were for all intents and purposes, safe?

"Shirou left this estate to me… but it didn't seem right to move in." Taiga explained simply, as anger flared up again in her eyes. "Why are you asking me this? What does it matter anymore?"

He didn't know how to answer that, if he told her that they suspected that he was still alive, she, or perhaps others who could learn of their suspicions could warn Emiya. Of course how much they could tell, or lie to her depend on how much she knew about the issue at hand. "Ms. Fujimura… what do you know about what Emiya did?"

"What do you mean what he did?" She asked suspiciously and narrowed her eyes at them.

"Why do you think was he always on the move, traveling the world? One disaster and war zone to another? Did he ever tell you?"

"He didn't have do, of course I know." She told them, irritation palpable in her voice. Both he and Natasha couldn't help but frown at that, the idea that the English teacher in front of them had any idea what Emiya truly had been up to seemed unlikely. "He sent pictures occasionally you know? He was helping with refugees… he was always helping… he had always been like that."

Clint had to use every ounce of his self-control not to gape. "Helping?" He muttered and did his best not to sound derisive. "Care to explain that?"

She snorted at them, if her opinion of them had been low before then it probably hit rock bottom right about now. "What did _you_ think he was doing, huh? Shirou always wanted to help people, ever since Kiritsugu took him in, he was always eager to help everyone! Half of the school equipment probably still works because of him."

That account stood in stark contrast to what they had known about Emiya. He had been in refugee camps multiple times, true but they had always assumed that it had been to better cover his tracks and disappear with the crowd. Eventually it was Natasha that broke the silence. "And how would you say, did he help the people he killed?" The question was callous, uncaring of the feelings of the woman before them, but it was also the simplest way to gather a true reaction.

Taigas eyes widened as she gasped, horror dawning in her eyes at the remark, it seemed she truly hadn't known about that part, or if she did only in the most broad sketches. Then her eyes narrowed and she shot up to her feet, fists shaking with anger. "You break into this house, interrogate me and now have the nerve to spread lies?!" She gritted out as her eyes blazed with rage. "Out!" She hissed and pointed towards the door. "Get out! Now!"

They obeyed, there was no reason to stay any longer. They had pushed too much in too short a time and now Fujimura would only clamp down and say nothing if they pressed. They had barely managed to make it through the front door when it was smashed shut behind them, the sound of a key turning telling them that Taiga had locked the door shut.

"Well… that went well." He muttered darkly as he made his way to their car. "Matou is up next then." The drive to their next destination was shrouded in silence. The two of them knew what they could about Matou, although her file had been less detailed than Fujimura's. He just hoped it wouldn't turn out as it did with the older woman. He wasn't angry with Natasha. No, he probably would have tried the same tactic if she hadn't preempted him.

It seemed they both had underestimated Taiga Fujimura. Still they at least learned something. The woman hadn't known about what Shirou had done, she hadn't even thought him capable of doing so, which meant that she wouldn't be able to tell them what they wanted to know. She believed her charge dead, having died on some humanitarian mission, she wasn't in the know about what Shirou had done or could do.

Perhaps Matou would have more insight. The small estate they arrived at this time was more modern. Though it too was build in a traditional Japanese way. The original building had been destroyed in a devastating fire, a mere year after Emiya had left London. Out of all inhabitants only Sakura Matou survived the fire, a gas leak if the reports were to be believed. He wasn't so sure, but any hope of disproving such a claim was long, long gone.

As they approached the residence of their latest witness he couldn't help but note that it seemed all rather similar to the Emiya estate. Of course there were some differences, partly due to the newer building materials and colouration, but from what he could see the rough layout appeared to be almost the same. Beside him Natasha used the bell and the two of them waited patiently. It didnt long for them to pick up the sound of soft steps approaching the door, a moment later it slid open.

Before them stood a youthful looking woman, with purple hair and eyes, a red-pink ribbon was tied to her hair on the left side of her head. He noticed that while they mustered her, she did the same to them, though with some wary surprise in her eyes. Understandable, two foreign strangers just rang at her door, he would be wary as well.

"Sakura Matou?" Natasha asked politely, even as they already knew that it was her, and offered a smile that made her seem completely harmless and innocent. He wouldn't fall for it, being all too aware of what she was capable of, but most others would. Sakura Matou though didn't seem to trust the smile either as she merely nodded once more, the wariness in her eyes only increasing. "I'm Agent Natalia Rushmore, and this is my colleague Agent Clive Banton of S.H.I.E.L.D. Could we come in? We have a few questions." Natasha dropped the smile as she noticed that it had the opposite of the intended effect even as she flashed her badge at the woman.

The purple haired woman hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded silently and took a step to the side. "Please, come in." Her voice was soft and kind as she invited them in. Once inside the differences and similarities between the Emiya and Matou estate became more pronounced. Whereas the Emiya estate had kept things mostly traditional Japanese, the Matou estate had reversed that state, being more european in facilities. Thus they took their seats on a table that was almost in an identical position as in the Emiya estate, but this time they sat on chairs and were surrounded by more modern appliances.

"How can I help you, Agents?" Sakura Matou asked them softly as she stood uncertainty between the kitchen and her seat. "Would you care for some tea?"

"No thank you." Clint answered with a gentle shake of his head. "If you don't mind we would like to get to business as soon as possible."

"Of course." The woman agreed and sat down, opposite of them. Unsurprisingly things thus far were going far better than they had with Fujimura. Not that he could blame the older woman for that. At any rate he found himself grateful that Matou also was easily able to speak english. It was not surprising, she had too had become a teacher at the local high school as well as working as the supervisor and instructor for the archery club. A club both she and Emiya had attended together for a time when they had been in school.

"We were wondering if you could tell us a few things about Shirou Emiya?" Natasha prompted and Matou suddenly grew tense in front of them.

"What would you like to know?" She asked, her voice admirably composed and calm despite the tension she radiated.

"For example if you ever noticed something… strange about him?" Clint offered with a shrug. "We are just trying to make sense of what happened to him." He almost didn't catch it, and even then he would have dismissed it as a figment of his imagination if Natasha hadn't narrowed her eyes as well in the corner of his eyes. A moment of hesitation so miniscule that even they nearly didn't catch it.

Sakura Matou was infinitely harder to read than Taiga Fujimura had been. He couldn't help but wonder, why that was the case, what had happened to the purple haired woman. Something was off when the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss was easier to read than a woman who for all intents and purposes appeared to be nothing special. "Senpai didn't care about himself." Sakura eventually said, apparently deciding to go with the truth, or perhaps she had noticed that she had been caught. "He always put others before himself, no matter what it cost him himself… he would help others." She looked to the side biting her lower lip softly before she added. "That.. wasn't normal."

More contradicting information, their analysts had at more than one point drawn attention to the fact that innocents had perished due to his actions, either as a direct result or as a consequence. If Emiya truly had been as caring as the Taiga and Sakura tried to make them believe then why do such things. Perhaps Emiya had changed drastically after leaving his hometown? It was a possibility to be sure, but it wasn't the only one. It was entirely possible that he had kept his true nature hidden for years on end, until he had the means to accomplish his goals.

"Could you give us an example of what you mean by that?" Natasha gently coaxed, her voice calm and soothing.

"He would repair all kinds of things for others, often without getting anything in return." Sakura explained after a short pause. "He even cleaned the Archery range when it wasn't his turn, he just… liked to help people."

"Did he help you as well?" Hawkeye asked mildly and Sakura nodded in reply.

"He helped everyone." She retorted simply as she softly folded her hands in her lap.

"Was he here when your family died?" Clint asked, it was nothing more than a feeling he had. Emiya had killed people all across the world, there was no reason for him to stop in his hometown. Perhaps it had been a simple misunderstanding, an argument had gotten out of hand and Emiya thought he was doing his friend a favour… but ended up going overboard. Her hands clenched into fists for a split second but he had seen the movement and knew that he had hit bullseye. "Did he kill your family?"

"No!" She denied immediately and her eyes widened at the accusation. "He didn't kill them, he didn't even meet them that day. He came by and… took me with him… when I got back… it was gone."

"Why?" Natasha cut in from the side as she cocked her head to the side. "Why did he take you with him? How can you be sure that he didn't simply return after he brought you somewhere else?"

"My uncle and I had… a few disagreements." Sakura explained haltingly, the way her eyes flitted about and the tone of voice were familiar to Clint. Sakura Matou had been a victim of abuse, which of course gave her ample motive to see her uncle dead. "But he couldn't have been the one to kill him, I was with him the entire time."

There was no hint of a lie in her body language, yet Hawkeye was still uncertain, she had after all already proven that she could mask her true feelings and intentions remarkably well. "Did you kill him?" He asked at last, the shocked reaction he had been expecting didn't appear however as she looked to the side as if ashamed.

"There a times where I wish I did." She said eventually and looked back up staring him down. "I was under the impression that we are supposed to talk about Shirou Emiya, not about myself." The message was clear, she wouldn't be willing to answer more questions of such a personal nature. Perhaps they could try to threaten her with what could happen if she didn't cooperate but that would be a waste of time. He doubted that if they resorted to anything short of torture they could manage to scare her if she had been as abused as they were lead to belief.

"Shirou Emiya killed countless people all over the world." Natasha told Sakura in response to her own declaration. "We want to know why he would do that? If he truly was as caring as you claim him to be, then I can't think of any reason for him to do so."

This time there was no shocked, horrified gasp and widening of eyes, only a nod of sad acceptance. Interesting, so Matou had been aware when Fujimura hadn't been. "If I knew Senpai at all… then I am sure he only did so because he had to." Clint wanted to snort at that but held himself back. It seemed that Sakura Matou idealized Shirou Emiya and what he had done in the past. Blinded perhaps because of their long friendship, or perhaps due to being grateful for being saved from her abusive family… until that problem was taken care of conveniently.

He opened his mouth to, at the very least give voice to his doubts when the telephone rang. Sakura stood up immediately and went to walk towards it before she stopped after three steps. "Is it okay if I…?" She trailed of, the meaning of her question clear regardless.

"Sure." He said and leaned back, exchanging a quick look with Natasha. He saw the same frustration burn in her eyes that he felt. Thus far they had only received information that seemed to contradict what they already knew.

"Nee-san?" Sakura said on the phone and blinked as the caller responded. "Is she alright?" The worry in her voice was palpable as she turned to the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, anger blazing in her eyes. "Yes… yes… I understand. I'll take care of her, yes I'll tell them." She put the receiver back in place as she stared at Clint and Natasha, now a sudden hostility in her eyes. "Tohsaka-san just called… she wishes to meet you in her home, she trusts that you already know the location. Though she warns you against entering without her present… as you did with Senpais old home." She pressed out as she grabbed a light jacket from a nearby clothes rack. "I'll have to take care of Fujimura-San… she is distraught." Just like that the sudden hostility made sense, on one hand Clint would have preferred to end the interrogation on his own terms, on the other hand he doubted that they would have learned anything of use anyway. So he hoped that Rin Tohsaka would prove different.

They got up and Sakura watched them like a hawk the whole time, until they were out of her house she never moved her stony gaze from them, nor did she hesitate to lock the door the moment she had stepped outside after them and marching of, undoubtedly to meet up with Taiga Fujimura.

Clint sighed, he didn't enjoy tormenting the older woman with the knowledge of what Emiya truly did, but he'd rather have a couple of angry crying women on his consciousness then a new bunch of corpses. Perhaps their last witness would be able to make things clearer, but considering how all of this was going thus far he had his doubts.

Once more they made their way to the car and drove off, towards the Tohsaka mansion. It was relatively nearby, in the same part of the town as the Matou estate, though unlike the former it didn't break the western style look of the buildings in this part of the city. Unlike the welcoming and open feel and appearance the other two buildings had, this one appeared more foreboding and stand-offish. Coupled with the aesthetics it almost seemed like one would imagine a haunted house.

The windows appeared darkened and desolate, it seemed as if Rin Tohsaka had yet to arrive, and thus they waited. It appeared however that Rin Tohsaka didn't travel by car, but rather by foot, and even then it seemed as if she was in no hurry if the time that passed was any indication. Perhaps it was nothing more than petty revenge for disturbing the peace of Fujimura and Matou, perhaps it was simply thoughtless idling, or perhaps it was an attempt at subtle power plays. Silently telling them that she wasn't acknowledging their authority.

Whatever the case, eventually Rin Tohsaka wasn't able to delay the inevitable any longer as she arrived. Long wavy black hair fell down her back, its color clashing with the red coat she wore over a shirt in a lighter hue of red, her legs were hidden beneath a long maroon skirt, though the thing that stood out most about her were her aqua eyes that briefly took them in before they focused on the door behind them. The youthful looking woman marched towards it even as Natasha stepped forward.

"Rin Tohsaka? My name is Natalia-" That was as far as she got with her friendly greeting as Tohsaka brushed right passed her, ignoring the offered hand and the friendly smile on the spies face as she stepped past Natasha and opened the door. Only once she had taken a step into the darkened interior did she turn her head slightly, sending a glance from the corner of her eyes at them as she acknowledged their presence at last.

"Agents Natalia Rushmore and Clive Banton, was it?" She asked, her voice while calm still held an almost amused inflection, as if she knew that the names were fake and she was entertained by their attempts at secrecy. "Well come in then, I would like to get this over with." Even though he was caught of guard by her mannerisms, Clint wasted no time in following her inside, Natasha fell into step behind him.

Their host led them through a long corridor, the furniture, carpets and even curtains appeared victorian in nature if Clint had to describe it. At any rate, everything within the house seemed to be many years old, even the receiver was still attached with a cord to the telephone. He hadn't even known that such models still were sold. His thoughts refocused once Tohsaka pushed open a huge double door, gesturing for them to enter and take a seat on a comfy looking couch. Once the two of them were past her she shut the door and sat down, opposite of them. "Now then, Agents." She began as she leaned back into the cushions behind her, looking entirely too relaxed, for someone about to be interrogated, in Clints mind. "I suppose it would be quickest if I began. You are here to ask questions about Shirou Emiya. Who died almost a whole year ago… and whose body the authorities refused to hand over due to 'security concerns'." The way she said those last two words made them very much aware that she didn't think much of the official reasons that had been given in the aftermath of his execution and subsequent disappearance. "Usually people tend to ask questions while the person they are interested in is still alive. So either you are grossly incompetent, unlikely, or you have received new information. Information which convinced you that it was a necessity to questions those closests to him, you began with the people who knew him longest and worked yourself down, and here we are."

"Impressive." Clint noted, he honestly was impressed that she had put everything together in such a short amount of time.

"So to answer a few questions. Yes, I knew Shirou rather well. Did I ever notice anything weird about him? Oh yes, his complete and utter inability to consider himself of any worth at all. Last time I spoke with him was a little over a year ago. Not too long before he was executed." Tohsaka rattled off, as she looked at them calmly. Not even a hint of dishonesty present.

"So you knew that he was internationally wanted?" Natasha cut in and raised an eyebrow.

"Well… I had a few suspicions." The black haired woman admitted easily and shrugged. "I mean I knew that he had killed people before, though I didn't know just how much trouble he was in until shortly before his execution."

"You were in contact with a known killer… and you didn't tell anyone?" Black Widow pressed and narrowed her eyes as the other woman smiled wanly.

"Are you really asking me why I didn't risk the wrath of a known killer?" Tohsaka asked back, clearly unimpressed by their questions thus far. "I am afraid I am very much unlike you, 'Agent Rushmore', I don't even know how to properly use a gun."

"Were you there when he decided to 'help' Sakura Matou?" Clint questioned after a brief lull in the conversation.

"I was." She confirmed with a nod. "Sakura is close to me as well." A small smile found its was upon her face as she said this.

"Sakura said that Emiya didn't kill her family or destroy her house." He noted, gaze boring into her as he tried to find any sign of deception or even unease.

"I suppose Sakura said so because it is the truth." She retorted and cocked her head to the side. "And before you ask, no Emiya didn't hire anyone else to do it for him, or even ordered someone close to him to do so."

"You seem rather certain that he didn't have any associates willing or able to help."

"I am, Shirou traveled alone for the most part, or eventually ended up alone again." She said, a sad note in her tone, as thoughtful frown found its way unto her face, before it was washed away a moment later as her face became a mask once more. "Perhaps though you should simply ask what you really want to and save us all time?"

Clint was inclined to agree with her but he could hardly ask her upfront about a possible secret organization that they suspected had pulled the strings on Shirou Emiya, or perhaps still were. Nor could he simply reveal the possible survival of her friend to her. Still, perhaps he could get some answers here. S.H.I.E.L.D. suspected that Emiya couldn't have been working alone, simply because that was the only thing that could explain his actions, or at least explain them and make sense. "Why did Shirou Emiya travel the world and do what he did?" He eventually asked as he leaned forward. "What was his motive? His reason?"

Rin Tohsaka blinked at them, apparently surprised by that, she let out a sigh and shook her head. "Can't you already guess?" She shot back as she looked at the two of them. "Sakura and Taiga should have given you enough clues by now."

"Clues?" He questioned and shook his head. "If anything they gave us information that conflicted with what we already knew."

"Did they now?" She asked mildly and stood up, pacing the length of the room. "I assume they told you that he was always willing to help, how he helped everybody, even strangers, never wanting a reward… even if it inconvenienced him."

"That doesn't-" Natasha began, but was cut of by a harsh hand motion of Tohsaka.

"Doesn't it?" She challenged, coming to a stop as she turned to look at them. "Shirou Emiya survived a terrible fire when he was a child, he was found with no memories, I am sure you already know this." They did, though truth be told S.H.I.E.L.D. was sceptical whether or not Kiritsugu Emiya had truly taken in an amnesic orphan out of the goodness of his heart, and that was putting it mildly. "I admit that I am partly guessing here but I'd say, he was suffering from intense survivors guilt, in an effort to somehow make up for his perceived failings… well he kept throwing himself into helping other people with their problems, to make things better."

"And how is killing innocent people making things better?" Hawkeye asked with a shake of his head.

"Actions themselves are neither inherently good or evil." Tohsaka lectured as she rolled her eyes at them. "Is a police man who shoots a criminal in the line of duty a murderer? Of course not, there are certain factors to consider. So if Shirou killed a few criminals it was his hope that it would improve the lives of people there."

"He didn't just kill criminals though." Hawkeye was quick to point out, it would have felt wrong to ignore the victims of Emiya who had done absolutely nothing to deserve their fate.

"Shirou always wanted to save everyone." Tohsaka said and shook her head. "Of course it is impossible to save everyone. So he did the next best thing. He saved as many as he could, by sacrificing the few." She told them as her face twitched in displeasure. "Kill one to save ten, ten to save a hundred, a hundred to save a thousand."

Both Hawkeye and Black Widow couldn't help but frown at the explanation they had been given. Their analysts had thought it most likely for Emiya to be controlled or at the very least heavily influenced by some unseen faction. His effectiveness and high cognitive functions had eliminated any possible assumption about mental illnesses. If he was being honest with himself then Clint had to admit that it was an alternative that was both temptingly simple, as well as entirely possible. Save for one fact of course, how had Emiya managed to survive, if it truly was him.

"Are you sure that your preconceptions about Shirou Emiya aren't blinding you to the truth?" Natasha asked and looked into stoic aqua eyes.

"Are you?" Tohsaka retorted and Clint had no answer to that.

 **End Notes:** _ **Nomad-117:**_ _Damn, this took way longer than I wanted it to. Things are looking less eventful for the most part at least but still. I had wanted this done way earlier. I apologize for the long wait and a chapter I rewrote more than once. I know there wasn't much action in this chapter or anything but I wanted to give those two and by extension S.H.I.E.L.D. an alternative perspective to look upon Shirou Emiya._

 _I'll be honest, I… uncertain about this. I tried to show that the characters like Taiga had… changed in all these years… not sure how well I did on characterization. Nothing new here to be honest but this chapter it felt more pronounced… perhaps because I had more characters in this chapter that I have never written for before than usual, meh. I hope it you find it at least acceptable._

 _Also as to why they identify themselves as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as it appears that S.H.I.E.L.D. is able to act all around the globe, and is backed by the World Security Council I figured it would make sense for them to use their actual authority instead of lesser one from an organization they don't even belong to._

 _I pray to the heavens that my dyslexic potato of a brain didn't overlook any serious mistakes. Until next time, hope you enjoyed it… and sorry for the delay._

 _ **Edit 19.03.2019:**_ _Corrected the mistake where I accidentally had Rin say that she talked to him after he was executed. I apologize for that._

 _ **Edit 06.04.2019:**_ _Triple checked the whole chapter, and then triple checked it again, and then again. I got a few more typos and mistakes._


	6. Chapter 6: Point Of View

**Chapter 6: Point Of View**

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _Greetings everyone, to begin with I would like to thank_ _ **simple405**_ _for reminding me that I have yet to show Natashas thoughts on the matter. I decided to do so with this one… while also showing a few others things. I hope that I managed to convey her thoughts in an understandable manner and you all enjoy this. That said, I have yet to watch Endgame, but plan to do so as soon as I'm able… which might take a bit. Anyway, without further delay, let's get started._

The words of Rin Tohsaka still echoed within Natashas mind, long after they had left the house and its owner behind. Their apparent inability to even consider the possibility that Emiya hadn't been some secret agent working for an unseen organization up to this point seemed to… disappoint and annoy her. As if she had expected better and now that she had learned what they thought had found them wanting. It was strange to say the least, perhaps she had hoped that at least some would understand why Emiya did what he did.

Natasha couldn't say for certain, but she got the feeling that the highly intelligent woman had wished for a better life for Emiya. Perhaps this was just another fact that caused her own interest in this whole affair to grow. As their car came to a stop and she silently exited it to move towards the old castle the Einzbern family owned in the region she was still struggling to pin down the reason she was now… irritated at Emiya.

Just as he had disturbed and shocked Clint so did he now plague her mind in a similar fashion. Until she had come to Fuyuki City it had been just another job as far as she had been concerned, though there had been some lingering feelings of curiosity about his connection to his father, she supposed. Still she had viewed the case as any other, an atypical one in many cases, but nonetheless utterly impersonal. Yet the more had been revealed the more this feeling of anger and resentment had grown towards the dead man.

She was distracted as they made their way to the von Einzbern's house by a sudden tingle shooting up her neck. She couldn't help but subtly look around herself, trying to find any pursuers, she saw none, and yet she still felt watched. A trait honed by dozens upon dozens of missions that had yet to fail her, though no matter what her instincts told her she failed to spot anyone. Their only witnesses were the birds sitting within the trees. With an inaudible sigh she decided not to tell Clint about her hunch, there was no need to make him paranoid as well, especially if she herself wasn't sure whether or not to trust her own judgment in this.

With that in thought her mind returned to its contemplations about Emiya and the sudden hostile feelings those thoughts invoked. That fact alone worried her, usually she tried to carry out her missions without letting any of her emotions get the better of her, or even influence her. When she was on a mission she was no longer Natasha Romanov, but Black Widow the deadly assassin needed to end threats to global stability. She did her best to shelve such thoughts for now as they entered the building, obviously abandoned and derelict for decades.

Whereas the Tohsaka mansion had appeared akin to a haunted house, though still inhabited the Einzbern castle seemed more akin to a ruin. Many windows had been smashed, judging by the look of it long ago. That was merely the outside of the structure, both Clint and herself couldn't help but wonder what they might find inside.

She had been ready for a great deal of things, and yet she hadn't been ready for what they actually found. Some damage she had expected, the exposure to the elements on years on end would have left their mark without fail after all. Yet she hadn't expected to find signs of a titanic struggle. To be honest it reminded her of Harlem, where the Hulk battled the Abomination. Great craters marked the ground and walls, many of the latter were completely smashed, countless of holes in the walls that still stood indicated that some sort of projectile had caused them, and yet she could think of none safe for high caliber rounds that could even approach such damage without the use of explosives. Not even the roof had been spared, even though the damage was far less severe there, still many craters seamed the ceiling, only once was the pattern interrupted by a hole. Large enough to allow a grown man to fall through it and then some right beneath it was larger crater within the buildings floor. As if something heavy had fallen from on high with great force.

Of course there were also the gauges to consider. What could have made them was a mystery to her. Some kind of blade perhaps, though she could think of no weapon large enough to create such deep and wide scars within the stone. Nor had she ever heard of something, save perhaps for the shield of Captain America that could have withstood the forces necessary to create such destruction.

A quick glance to her side allowed her a glimpse at Clint. His own posture was just as tense as her own, she could practically see the very same thoughts she had flickering behind his eyes. Not for the first time she wondered what had happened here. How it was connected to Emiya, and whether or not it would explain anything about him.

"Let's take a look around." She suggested softly, not waiting for a reply she already began to move through the castle. Some rooms appeared completely untouched by the destruction that had occurred long ago, yet others had been completely destroyed, remnants of walls the only indication that there had been separate rooms at one point, instead of the single large one filled with ruins.

The fighting had been confined to the interior of the castle for the most part, although Clint informed her that he had found signs of the same struggle on the roof, specifically right next to the hole in the ceiling the two had noticed earlier. It was impossible to say where the fighting had originally started. Especially since the more she glimpsed at beneath thick layers of dust the more convinced she became that this battle, hadn't been fought by ordinary humans, at this point she wasn't even sure that it was fought by extraordinary ones. The only thing she was able to compare this destruction to was the Hulk. Yet Banner had never been to Fuyuki City as far as they knew, most certainly not after the accident. It didn't help that the signs of struggle appeared decades old, though forensics would need to check to make sure.

If they did, perhaps they would be one step closer to understanding what had happened in the Einzbern Castle. Whatever it was, perhaps it was an explanation as to why Illyasviel von Einzbern died as young as she did. As far as S.H.I.E.L.D. was concerned the cause of death for the young woman was… unclear. A wound or some other kind of injury she received in this mysterious battle would go a long way in explaining why her health had deteriorated as much as it did.

Once more the words of Rin Tohsaka seemed to taunt her. Reminding her that perhaps in regards to Emiya and the people close to him they were doing little else but chasing shadows. Once upon a time she might have been able to believe the other woman's words, but that had been before she had been turned into a monster. Before the Red Room, before Madam B. In another life she might have considered such a point of view as possible, even likely, but in this world she knew just how cruel and uncaring humans in their line of work tended to be. Or rather had to be, people with a soft heart either learned to harden themselves… or died as a result of their failure to do so.

She was willing to bet that there was something about Emiya that they had yet to uncover, something that might have forged a connection between him and Illyasviel von Einzbern. The state of the castle seemed to indicate that the Einzberns might frequent the same circles as Emiya did. Of course that in and of itself was a problem, to say the Einzberns were reclusive was an understatement. At this point S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't even certain whether or not the Einzberns were still alive. None have been seen for years, and all known addresses tied to their name appeared abandoned.

Another lead could have been Rin Tohsaka herself but at this point the connection was tangential at best. She had entered Emiya's life at roughly the same time as Illyasviel did. That was the only commonality the two seemed to share. In addition to that Tohsaka seemed to spend most of her time in London, having studied Mineralogy with a focus on gems. Given what she had seen in the woman's house, Rin Tohsaka seemed to hold a love for gemstones of all kinds. Though the rest of her life remained obscure, preciously little was known about her private life. Though given their interrogation of her Natasha still felt confident that they hadn't been lied to. Still, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on Tohsaka, just in case.

"Fury will want to know about this." Clint muttered quietly over the radio and Natasha was inclined to agree. "Our forensics should know just how much there is to take a look at."

"Provided they can even find anything of note." Natasha couldn't help but point out. The chances seemed slim at best after so many years and, in many parts at least, the exposure to the elements.

"Well as Fury said, we got nothing to lose by trying, right?" He shot back rhetorically, she offered no disagreement even as her doubts about the utility of such an action continued to fester. The two assassins worked in silence as they continued to take pictures of the various rooms of the castle as well as its surrounding. It would be helpful to convey even a broad sense of scale to the forensics.

The question of how many S.H.I.E.L.D. would send was a difficult one to answer. On one hand a certain amount was required in order to conclude the investigation in a timely fashion, on the other hand too many would draw the attention of the people living here, and potentially others as well. As of yet it seemed that only they were aware of the resurgence of Emiya, and S.H.I.E.L.D. would like to keep it that way.

"So what now?" She asked once she was done with cataloguing her part of the castle.

"Guess we can swing by Ryuudou temple." Clint drawled as he made his way downwards. "Check the graves, perhaps there is some clue hidden there."

"Like what?" She couldn't help but question sceptically.

"Don't know, maybe he digged himself out of his grave." He suggested morbidly. "Yeah, yeah I know. The body disappeared, but who knows? Besides the head monk of the temple is one Issei Ryuudou, according to our data he also knew Emiya."

"In school." She pointed out cooly. "After Emiya went to London contact was severed as far as we are aware. In addition to that according to our background checks there is nothing out of the ordinary, his whole life was simple to follow and verify… unlike von Einzbern's, Matou's and even Tohsaka's. If anything his life seems rather mundane."

"We won't know until we try." Clint singsonged at her, his steps leading him down the damaged stairway in the main hall. "Besides… Kiritsugu Emiya is buried there as well, just in case you want check in one your old quarry."

She didn't, he was dead and she was fine with that. There was no sense in meeting with a dead man, after all the dead couldn't speak or act anymore. Though she didn't share those thoughts with him, instead she merely signaled her agreement with his plan, falling in step alongside him as they made their way to their car.

The moment they had left the castle she felt the tingle in her neck once more, and still she failed to spot anything but birds. "Clint." She said quietly as he opened the door on the drivers side. "I think we are being watched."

"Any idea who or where?" He asked quietly as he fiddled with the keys, appearing utterly casual and relaxed to all onlookers.

"No." She was forced to admit, she could see how that displeased him just as much as it did her, but it was just as evident that he still trusted her judgment.

"We'll move to the temple, lets see what they do." He decided as he took his seat behind the steering wheel. She mirroted he motion of the passengers side. "Keep an eye out though, if someone intends to ambush this would be the best place to do so… though then they should have already struck."

She agreed with his assessment with a court nod even as he started up the engine. The isolated location was the ideal spot for an ambush, especially for an attacker that might already be more familiar than they were with the location. The car began to move and their tension rose as they slowly made their way out of the forest, yet no attack came. It seemed as if their unseen watchers were content to merely keep an eye on them, rather than intervene directly.

More worrying was the fact that even once they had cleared the trees the feeling of being watched did not abate. Out in the open Natasha once more tried to find their watchers, she still wasn't able to find them. A worrying thought indeed, doubly so when the very same scene repeated again and again. It seemed that no matter how fast they moved back towards Fuyuki City, and eventually through it, they couldn't shake of their pursuers, nor were they able to spot them, a worrying combination to say the least.

In an unspoken agreement Hawkeye continued to drive through the city instead of going to the temple immediately. He used the great red bridge to cross the river, spent some time on the other side. They even went so far as to entering a restaurant for a while, and yet they were still being watched unless her insteics were mistaken. She knew that such was only wishful thinking on her part though.

"So what now?" Clint asked quietly as he carefully took a sip from his glas. "Try to lose them further? Come back again tomorrow or even later and hope they'll lose interest by then?"

She looked out of the window for a moment, the moon had already began to rise since they had begun to play this game of cat and mouse. She shook her head. "No, I say we go to the temple now. I doubt that they'll let us be no matter how long we delay."

"And with just your instinct telling us that we are being watched to go on, we'll have a hard time flushing them out as well." Hawkeye noted idly as he sat down his glas. "I'd be impressed with their ability to stay undetected if I wasn't so worried what that could mean for us." The words were spoken lightly, as if discussing nothing more than the weather, but the seriousness of the situation was all too easily seen in his eyes. As it stood now their unseen pursuers could strike them down whenever they wished, that they hadn't was a mercy on their part neither could explain.

"Then let's go." Natasha said softly and signaled a waiter that they wished to pay. "No sense in wasting any more time in here then."

"Agreed, lets just hope that our visit to the temple won't trigger a more… aggressive reaction." A valid concern, though she had the feeling that that wouldn't be the case. Given that by now they had essentially been to everywhere in Fuyuki City but the temple she doubted that their destination would trigger further hostility. She could be mistaken of course, they'd soon find out one way or another.

She settled the bill with a brief smile towards the waiter, eager to bring this investigation to a conclusion. The more she thought about this case the more she felt the sense of irritation gnaw at her. What it had replaced she couldn't rightly say, but she was certain that once upon a time she had felt differently about this case, a cold professional interest to be certain, but beneath that layer of professionalism had lain something else.

Perhaps she would learn what it had been, and why that feeling had changed during her stay in Fuyuki City. Though given what they had uncovered thus far she did not dare to hope such. The moment they stepped outside the lingering feeling of being watched intensified, like a camera snapping into focus once more. Just as they had thought, their pursuers had yet to grow tired of following them. Inscrutable watchful intent followed them to the car and through the streets. Even as they climbed the moonlit stairs of the temple the sensation of being watched did not decrease.

As the reached the top of the stairs, and thus the gates to the Ryuudou temple they saw that at this late hour only few people were still within the temples walls, most of them monks, those that were not were on the verge of leaving. Neither Clint nor her so much as slowed down as they moved through the temple gates, their target was the grave of Kiritsugu Emiya, and the two graves right beside it, Shirou's and Illyasviel von Einzbern's, though why the latter was buried alongside the two was a mystery.

Their approach caught the attention of a tall, bespectacled monk with short black hair and an expression of utter seriousness on his face. She had seen the same face glaring at her from photos before. Issei Ryuudou, head monk of the Ryuudou temple, he had rarely left Fuyuki City, and those instances had been brief at best. It was no exaggeration to claim that S.H.I.E.L.D. possessed almost his entire life history. Which was why they had seen little need to interrogate him before, they knew for certain that he wasn't in contact with something out of the ordinary.

She could barely perceive the slight thinning of his lips as he took in their brazen approach in disapproval. It would have been good manners to delay their visit to a more appropriate time, Natasha however was not in the mood to delay any longer. "I'm sorry, but we are about to close the temple for the night." Issei told them in japanese, noticing the confusion on Hawkeyes face he repeated his words in fluent english.

Wasting no time she flashed her badge at him. "Natalia Rushmore and Clive Banton from S.H.I.E.L.D. We would like to talk." His expression becomes more serious and guarded at that, and she could just make out a hint of discord glinting in his eyes at their brashness.

"I assume it can't wait if you chose to visit at this late hour." He noted neutrally. "Though it I hope that should this happen again you will choose to arrive sooner."

"Hopefully that won't be necessary."

"That is my hope as well." Which really was just a polite way of telling them to leave as soon as possible and never come back if Natasha wasn't mistaken. "Now then, how may I help you agents?" Displeasure at their presence hidden beneath a mask of calm politeness, she could deal with that.

"We'd like to ask you a few questions about Shirou Emiya, you were his friend were you not?" She got straight to the point, her eyes carefully gauging his reactions. "We also would like to see his grave."

"His friend?" He asked with a raised eyebrow as he curtly on his heel and curtly gestrued them to follow him. "I wonder if that was ever true." Natasha raised an eyebrow at the bitterness in his voice.

"Were we mistaken?" She asked casually as they entered the graveyard behind the temple. Countless headstones casting eerie shadows in the moonlight that bathed them all in a silver sheen. "We were told that the two of you were often seen in highschool… and that he would often help around the school."

"That is true." Issei agreed with a curt nod, his steps leading them deeper into the maze of headstones. Not even here did the feeling of being watched so much as wane. "Shirou… was always willing to help." The last part is said with deliberate slowness as he came to a stop. "Here we are."

She stared at the graves intently, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Not even some strange symbols like Clint had found in the shack at the Emiya mansion. A few fresh flowers had been left at the graves but that was nothing unusual, she assumed that Fujimura Taiga and Sakura Matou had placed them there. "You don't seem happy about that." She pointed out, her eyes not leaving the graves for even a moment, Clint was watching Ryuudou for her after all. "And do you have any idea why Illyasviel von Einzbern was buried alongside Kiritsugu Emiya?"

"I know little… but Shirou claimed that she was Kiritsugu's daughter." Issei answered, the tone of voice alone made clear that he was still thinking heavily on how to answer her first question. "She just showed up one day and began to live with him, there was another relative of his but she disappeared shortly after." He murmured distractedly. "And you are right, I'm not happy about it."

"May I ask why?" She prompted him, her full attention settling on the monk. Resolving to ask about this mysterious relative later.

He hesitated for a moment, glancing at the headstone of his erstwhile friend, an expression of bitter disappointment appearing on his face. "At first I was happy for his help… but it soon turned into an obsession. After Illyasviel died… he practically threw himself at every problem he found… at the exclusion of all else. Then he left for London with Tohsaka… we fell out of contact shortly after, he didn't return calls most of the time, and when I reached him his thoughts were clearly on something else. I tried to help him but… he didnt want my help, nor anyone's for that matter, I know they certainly tried." He revealed unhappily. "Last time I saw him was three years ago when he visited Fujimura Taiga… it was by pure chance that I saw him… he was here talking to me but in his mind he was already somewhere else. He only talked about a refugee camp he had been in… somewhere near Sana'a. I tried to talk him out of leaving, he didn't even listen to me. That is why I cannot say whether or not I ever was his friend, the only thing he cared about in the end was trying to help as many as he could, no matter what it cost him or those trying to help him."

She knew her eyes lit up at that information. They had lost track of Emiya for a short time roughly three years ago, perhaps they'd be able to find the refugee camp where he claimed to have been, and thus uncover a new lead. Yet that was not the only reason she felt a cold feeling of vindication rise within her. Issei Ryuudou had managed to reveal to her why she had begun to resent Emiya.

She was surprised by her own foolishness, but she realized that she had sympathized with Emiya in the past. Thinking him not too dissimilar from her. Believing him to have been trained by his father since his childhood, indoctrinated with Kiritsugu Emiya's own worldview. She had though that he, just like her once upon a time, didn't have a choice. That perhaps all he needed someone to give him a chance, a way out. Like Clint had done for her. She had been wrong.

Whereas she had been forced to kill, again and again, sent on countless mission after her 'graduation' from the Red Room, turned into a monster without any regard for any of her own wishes, he hadn't had any of these things. He had people looking out for him, caring for him, trying to help him. Yet he had pushed them all away, squandered the help they had offered. It had been the revelation that he's had had a chance, many in fact, and not taken them that had turned Natashas misplaced sympathy into loathing. What she would have given to have had friends such as he did when she was younger. She let out an irritated breath, what was done was done, there was no sense despairing over past decisions. Though this made one thing clear, Emiya and herself were nothing alike. She would keep that in mind when she met him. If she met him, she amended as her eyes focused on the head monk of the Ryuudou temple once more. "I see… though you mentioned another relative of his."

"I did." He confirmed, frowning at the sudden change in subject and perhaps in concentration as he tried to recall said relative. "She was our age perhaps a bit younger… blonde hair and green eyes… she was a foreigner, from England I believe, though she spoke Japanese fluently."

"Did she have a name?" Hawkeye cut in the curiosity in his voice was evident.

"She asked me to call her Saber, though it seems unlikely that that was her true name." Ryuudou told them with a helpless shrug.

"I see, thank you for your time." Natasha said curtly and motioned for Clint to follow her. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Ryuudou. Hopefully we won't bother you again."

"Hopefully." He agreed as he watched them leave, choosing to stay in the moonlit graveyard for a little longer until they had left before he made his own way back into the temple. Not that Natasha cared, she was already planning their next steps.

"On the way to the airport I'll check every bit of available information about refugee camps near Sana'a, whether or not it is still there, or where the people who had been there are now." She told Hawkeye as they rushed down the stairway towards their car. "If he was there… we'll find out."

"Finally a lead worth pursuing." He agreed as he took his place behind the wheel. He gave her just enough time to close her own door on the passengers side before he took of. Tablet in hand she searched through every bit of information S.H.I.E.L.D. had on the refugee camp, which to her surprise was not only still there, although it had moved farther away from the city, but had actually grown in size. They had a new lead, one that seemed more promising than anyone they've had before. A chance to find out what Emiya had been up to during the times that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been unable to locate him.

Natasha looked forward to it. The sooner clarity was brought to Shirou Emiya's case the better. She was so intent in trying to gather more information that she almost missed the retreat of the watchful presence and her instincts finally calmed again.

 **End Notes:** _**Nomad-117:**_ " _This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard."_

― _**Neil Gaiman**_

 _In other words, there was something of a delay with this chapter. First… lets say complications in real life that could have been avoided, second I got my hands on Devil May Cry V and played that like a complete and utter maniac and third, I found out that I am fool. Watched the news and trailer for Persona 5 The Royal and now I'm completely and utterly hyped for the game. Despite the fact that I already got Persona 5 lying around… like I said I'm a fool. Though that is one of the reasons I will try to write additional chapters for Semper Ad Meliora, of course I will still try to write more for this whenever I'm able. Just have to get a few ideas out of my head first. As always I'm sorry for the mistakes I've indubitably made._


	7. Chapter 7: Trail Gone Cold

**Chapter 7: Trail Gone Cold**

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _Hello everyone, I apologize a thousandfold for the delay. More on that in the end notes. Until then please read the chapter and hopefully enjoy, I admit I just finished it and only checked it over once. I still hope that the errors arent to significant after more than a few rewrites._

"Do you think that Kiritsugu actually had a daughter? Or… at least actually tried to raise her?" Natasha asked Clint as she sat down her tablet. "His psychic evaluation seems to contradict such a notion."

"But we can't rely on them one hundred percent either. The shrinks can miss stuff, if all they had to go on for me was my MO in the field, they'd claim that having kids wouldn't fit me either." Clint was quick point out as he steered their vehicle through the streets of Sana'a. "Besides, knowing Fury he'll look into that." He snorted as he said such. "Although it is still a better lead than some woman who calls herself Saber."

"We haven't been able to find any family of Kiritsugu Emiya, so it seems unlikely that she was related to him in the first place." Natasha mused as she flipped through the reports on her tablet. "Records indicate that he lived with his father for a time, but both of them soon disappeared and became untraceable, until Kiritsugu resurfaced working as a hired gun."

"You think he worked for the same guys as Shirou did?" Clint asked casually, eyes sliding sideways for a brief moment as he mustered her. "It was your case to find him isn't it? So what do you think?"

"I don't know." Natasha admitted, feeling all too familiar frustration well up inside her at that confession. "There are some similarities, such as the fact that both of them managed to seemingly just disappear from our radar, multiple times even, but Kiritsugu worked as a mercenary and assassin. We haven't managed to identify all of his contractors as of yet, but we had definitive proof that this was the case. Shirou though… he seemed to just do these things."

"You think Tohsaka is right?" Clint asked quietly, hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. "That we are blind to the truth?"

"Perhaps" She conceded after a moment of contemplation. "They seemed honest when they answered our questions, of course, that just means that they are either pretty good liars, or told us what they believe to be true. Perhaps we aren't the only ones, blind to the truth."

Clint merely hummed at that, not offering anything else as their car left the city limits and accelerated the refugee camp was still some few dozens kilometers away. It was no longer as large as it once was, the fighting had decreased in the past year and with the end of the war was supposed to have stopped completely. Of course there were still some regions where the fighting had yet to cease, but peace had returned enough for people to attempt and try to return to their lives previously. Still the government had tried to keep the refugee camp at arm's length, to their credit they sent what help they could spare towards their people in need, but at the same time they had warned them to stay away from the capital. A part of her even understood, thousands of people, without anything to their name and desperate to stay alive would have indubitably done their part, even if they were not aware of it, to bring civil unrest to a population that was already on edge.

Keeping that in mind, she busied herself with what intel she could get her hands on. The pictures Hawkeye had taken of the circle in the shed were still being analysed. Thus far their researchers concluded that it might have served some unknown ritualistic purpose, though they requested more time for a more in depth analysis.

Natasha wasn't particularly optimistic about their future chances. If the trend of this continued their science department would soon enough meet a dead end. Or, if one were to be slightly more optimistic, find at least something that could be of use, but whether or not they could use that was another matter entirely. Personally she had thought the investigation of the drawing to be a waste of time, there was nothing to be gained from it. Though she supposed that S.H.I.E.L.D. was desperate enough for answers to chase even phantoms.

Which lead her to the second part of the report. A small unit had already been assembled and sent to Fuyuki City. Their primary objective was to investigate the Einzbern castle thoroughly. The traces of what ever fight had taken place there seemed to indicate superhuman prowess as well as advanced technology, perhaps even a combination of both. For all they knew it might give them a hint, a lead towards what allowed Emiya to perform his own inhuman feats.

Perhaps it was that line of thinking that had led to the decision to try and get samples from the bones of Illyasviel von Einzbern. Some small hope that it would give them a new lead, or perhaps even the beginning of an answer. The fight had taken place within their castle after all, and the incident had been kept quite, so it was logical to assume that they too might be involved in this. Unfortunately Fury had, as he claimed the Einzbern family to be reclusive, understated things if anything. Outside of records of their supposed existence there was surprisingly little known about the Einzbern family, a fact that frustrated Fury to no end, they had practically no digital footprint to speak of. The only thing they had been able to put to their name was an old and seemingly abandoned castle in Germany. In fact S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't even certain as to who was part of this reclusive family, whether by blood or marriage, or perhaps even mere claim. With some luck the remains of Illyasviel von Einzbern could answer some questions at least, perhaps these remains would show signs of alterations, perhaps a prototype of some sort, which would lead further credence, even proof, to their theory that Emiya might have had been more than an ordinary human.

Time would tell, though until then they surely wouldn't just sit around and wait for, hopefully, helpful results. She took note as Clint steered the Vehicle from the wellbuilt main street to paths more akin to trails of dirt. It would have been foolish for the refugees to live too close to the traffic ways. Aside from the danger of someone less than friendly using those streets there was, as always, the risk of getting involved in an ordinary accident. Considering that there were children present within the refugee camp made such precautions even more important. Her childhood might have been anything but normal, and thus she could hardly judge but she had spent enough time with Clint's family to conclude one thing. Children could achieve a lot of things if they set their minds to it. In particular they seemed to excel in sneaking and hiding, though that might have been Clints influence shining through. Yet, some watchful eyes on the lookout probably were needed to keep them all together.

Natasha was surprised when she saw that the refugee camp didn't just have people on the lookout, but that those very same people seemed armed and behaved in a fashion that she would almost call professional. Little hints gave away that they weren't as accustomed to this as they tried to appear, but their overall organization, placing, and behaviour was shockingly competent. Perhaps, the government had supplied them with guards, though that seemed unlikely. Their faces appeared weary as if they had been here for a while, coupled with the fact that the cessation of hostility had been only a relatively short while ago, and there yet remained places of greater importance, it would have been a waste of resources for the government to send trained personnel to a place such as this.

Another question they could ask once they had the chance to talk to the staff, though to be fair there was a good chance of them staying here only for a very brief time. It seemed more likely that they wouldn't find someone from the time when Emiya was here, if so they would have to ask if someone knew who was, or simply look into the documents that would detail such information. The only reason why they hadn't done the latter already was because it seemed like those very same documents were kept on an accessible computer. Thus they had to take a more direct approach.

Eventually they reached what passed for an entrance into the refugee camp, it wasn't much, just a black colored tent right next to the dirt road and a few additional guards but then again there was no need for something more elaborate as the guards fanned out, taking up position around their car. Never once blocking the line of fire of one of their comrades and posting in a way that would make sure that they wouldn't hit one another if they suddenly had to fire through their car.

She had seen cops that were less efficient and professional than that, and with a sinking feeling she dared to guess who had trained these guards, or at least their predecessors who than gave this knowledge to others should they have died or left by now. Emiya, she was certain of it for some reason, and not only because the raising of multiple militia had been among the many charges leveled against him. It simply fit, he had been here, he had the ability, the probability of someone else possessing the same preconditions were low to say the least. Not impossible, but unlikely.

"What do you want?" The leader of the guards questioned brusquely, his face and eyes hard as he stared them down. Natasha couldn't blame him for his weariness, there were precious little reasons for people to simply approach the refugee camp unannounced, even less for two foreigners.

"Easy, we just wanna talk." Hawkeye said softly and kept his hands on the steering wheel, visible even as she held up her own. "We are looking for answers, and we think we can find some here." He slowly removed his right hand from the steering wheel and gestured towards his breast pocket. "May I?" The guard nodded curtly even as the postures of him and the others grew more tense. Calmly and without hurry Clint pulled a photo from his pocket and offered it to the leader of the guards. At the sight of the photo, one that depicted Emiya, a flash of recognition lit up the mans face for a moment before he suppressed it. "We heard that this guy has been here some time ago, we are trying to retrace his footsteps."

"Why would we want to talk to you?"

"Because if you help us, we'll help you." Natasha cut in smoothly, brown eyes flickered to her as she offered him an USB-Stick. "Our superior authorized the transport of additional supplies for you, provided you cooperate, the details are on this stick."

The man clearly was torn, his desire to protect the people behind him from a potential threat, coupled with the rearing of his pride at essentially being extorted it made for a compelling reason not to talk with them. Yet the promise of additional supplies was in the end too tempting to let pass and so he nodded once. "We'll talk, but I'll check this Stick first. If you lied to me…"

"Yeah, we get it." Clint assured him with a smirk. "We'll wait while you make sure it checks out. A couple more minutes won't matter to us." Without another word, the leader of the guards turned and vanished into the black tent next to the road. Probably checking the contents of the USB-Stick she had given him, before deciding on anything else. So far all was going according to plan. Even should they decide that the offer wasn't worth their time it wouldn't matter overly much. Along with the data there was an advanced virus on the Stick, one that would swiftly infect any electronic device it would come into contact with. Thus gathering any and all digital information within the refugee camp that thus far had been denied to S.H.I.E.L.D.. Or at least that was the plan, of course the virus would still require a stable Internet connection to extract the data, something which was spotty at best within the refugee camp, if that had not been the case S.H.I.E.L.D.'s hackers would have scoured the data already for clues.

After a few short moments the guard returned and nodded at them briskly. "Your car stays here, but the doc and I will talk with you."

"Sure, no problem." Clint agreed easily as he got out of the car. "And don't worry, as soon as we are done talking we'll leave. No sense in bothering you guys more than we already did." The guards seemed to relax miniscule at the easy going attitude Clint displayed. Undoubtedly the reason why he had chosen to do so in the first place, though it certainly helped that every word he said was true. Even so, they wouldn't delete the virus anytime soon, S.H.I.E.L.D. was ever hungry for more information and anything that could help with that was just another weapon in their arsenal.

"Dr. Reiche and I will answer your questions." The guard and now, guide, informed them as hte led them deeper into the camp. "Most of the others who spoke to him are gone now, and we knew him best."

"Why is that?" Clint wondered softly as he glanced at their guide.

"Because he often helped the doctors or else was busy beating some of us into shape." He admitted freely as they walked past a tent where some kids were busy playing something. His words confirming their suspicions. Emiya had trained them, had turned refugees into a militia, and they in turn had trained others.

"So it was him that trained the guards." Natasha commented, more to get a definite answer than anything else.

"Yeah, though most of the guys you already saw are new here, so me and the old guards tried to teach them after Kojiro was gone." His words were casual, but his eyes mustered the two of them attentively. Just as much trying to decipher their true feelings and intentions as they tried to do the same with him. It seemed strange. After going through all this trouble of turning civilians into an effective fighting force Emiya just moved on.

Had he recruited, or at the very least, used or exploited them Natasha would have understood. At times it didn't matter how skilled the individual was, they needed more manpower to get the job done. Emiya certainly hadn't been any different, and yet instead of making use of what he had built up he had just left, never to return or contact them again. Perhaps he would have if he had not been captured, but even then he had been here years ago. He would have squandered valuable manpower for all that time, and Emiya had been many things but being inefficient had not been one of them.

Hiding her thoughts behind an impassive mask Natasha asked instead. "Kojiro?" Another fake name then, he had employed many, but perhaps they would be able to track his activities down further with this latest alias. Even then she doubted that they had discovered all the names he had chosen for himself.

"That's what he told us to call him, Raiga Kojiro or something like that." The guard answered swiftly, his eyes narrowing minimally, he indubitably suspected now that the man who had trained him had used a fake name, or perhaps that Clint and herself had not known his true name until now. If such thoughts bothered him he didn't say anything as he went up to a dirty grey tent and knocked on its right post.

"Come in." A female voice with a slight german accent answered in response and he pushed the flap aside, motiong for the two of them to enter first. No doubt so that he could keep an eye on them from behind, neither of them hesitated. Confident enough that the prospect of violence was unlikely.

The woman that awaited within appeared to be in her late forties perhaps early fifties. Dark brown hair streaked with grey, wrinkles visible on her face as tired, overworked, green eyes focused on them from behind her glasses. As she stared them down the woman who was, according to the nameplate on her dirty white coat Dr. Vanessa Reiche. Member of Doctors without borders, admirable no doubt but given the state of the woman in front of them it also seemed to be a most taxing endeavour.

"So you are the ones that promised us to redirect some supplies towards us if we answer your questions." She noted, her voice cool as she gazed at the two agents. "I understand that this matter is of great import to you, but I am certain that you will understand that I will not in any shape or form breach my doctor-patient confidentiality."

"Of course not, Dr. Reiche." Clint jumped in with an easy-going smile. "We aren't interested in something like that. We are more concerned about what you can tell us about one Raiga Kojiro, I believe he introduced himself as to you?"

"Raiga… that is a name that I haven't heard in years." The ageing woman muttered her eyes sliding sideways as she recalled something about Emiya's time with them no doubt. "If you don't mind me asking… why are you so interested in him? He left years ago, and none of us have seen him since."

"I am afraid that is mostly need to know." Clint replied smoothly with an apologetic smile. "Though what I can tell you that… Raiga Kojiro is dead, and we are investigating the circumstances of his demise. I am afraid that is all I am allowed to tell you."

The doctors eyes widened at that as she nodded in response. "Of course… what do you need to know." Unlike the previously cool reception she now seemed almost eager to help, most likely due to the fact that Clint had made it seem like she would help bringing the murderer of an old colleague to justice.

"Well, for one if you could tell us what exactly he did here? We have been following his life as best we could but there are some empty spots and he did so many different things that it is hard to get a concrete picture." Clint asked politely as he graced the woman with another smile. "I know you probably expected something more orderly but… things have been difficult." He scratched his cheek in embarrassment, and if Natasha had not known him she would have been completely fooled by the awkward mask he put on.

"I can tell you some things." Dr. Reiche agreed easily enough even as she nodded towards the guard from earlier. "However if you wish to know specifics about his training and combat experience you should ask Mr. Aamer. He will be able to give you a far more accurate testimony than I could regarding such things."

"That is fine, the two of you have thankfully agreed to speak with us." Clint assured her with an understanding nod. "Now then, if you could tell us what you know of him, from the beginning preferably."

The older woman leaned back in her weathered chair and sighed. "I think it was… almost four years ago by now. The war was at its height, we didn't have enough supplies or personal for anything. So when he Raiga Kojiro came, with nothing but the clothes on his back, his ID and passport and offered to help we saw no reason not to accept." She smiled wistfully. "He wasn't a doctor, but according to him he studied a bit medicine in London once and had experience as a first responder."

Natasha silently nodded at that even as Clint gently motioned for her to continue. Emiya had, according to their knowledge, never studied medicine or had even been enrolled at the university of any kind. What exactly he did in his one year in London was unclear, though given the apparent medical training it could very well be that he received some training in that regard during his stay in the metropolis. Of course, depending on how much information they found or didn't find this might be a question to press Tohsaka on. It was entirely possible that the black haired woman didn't know herself, but Natasha couldn't shake the feeling that Rin Tohsaka knew more than it first appeared to be the case. She focused her attention back onto the doctor as she began speaking once more.

"We of course started out carefully, not everyone willing to help is actually capable of doing so after all… but he proved his worth. Performing triage when a new wave of wounded refugees arrived, monitoring the patients, keeping them stable until help could get to them. Honestly speaking, coupled with his apparent combat expertise we suspected him to be some kind of ex-soldier or mercenary but… he never gave us any reason to complain." Dr. Reiche admitted with a wry shrug. "There were some times I'll freely admit that I have no idea what we would have done without his help, and I don't mean in combat. You have to ask Mr. Aaman for that as I said. However, whatever he did before he came here he must have had some experience with psychological traumas before. He… became something of a camp counselor if you will. He just… listened to people and then tried to help them however he could. He helped more than his fair share of young women to work through their trauma after they had been raped, and more than one young man as well. Of course he also took care of other forms of mental trauma."

Both Clint and Natasha blinked at that, to them Emiya had been an impeccable foe, highly efficient, unpredictable and utterly lethal. It was one thing to hear the reassurances of his former guardian and his friends that he was a decent person. It was something else entirely to hear those things from someone who hadn't even known his real name. To hear that Emiya wasn't the cold blooded killer they had believed him to be, to hear proof of that claim, was… surprising to put it mildly. If he had just wanted to disappear he could have simply become a face in the crowd, if he simply wanted to recruit people for his cause the training of a militia would have made sense. Medical knowledge, could have been simply applied to buy himself goodwill. Attempting to deal with the psychological problems of his patients, especially when no one would have so much as batted an eye if he didn't make the extra effort was something else. It went beyond any practical reasons for whatever he might have conducted, furthermore while it was easy to treat physical problems the matters of the mind requires a more gentle approach and a greater amount of care in most cases at least. Something which neither of them had thought Emiya capable of as long as it didn't play into his goal, whatever that was.

Now though it appeared as if the residents of Fuyuki City had been correct, at least to a certain degree, that much Natasha was willing to concede. Emiya had apparently truly tried to help people in his own misguided fashion it seemed. Unaware of their thoughts the doctor continued on. "Outside of his duties he tended to keep to himself, he was certainly polite when you talked to him but… he was something of a workaholic if you will. If he had the choice between resting after a twelve hour shift or playing with some kids just to put a smile on their face he would choose the latter whenever possible. I admit sometimes I almost got the feeling that he couldn't be happy unless he made someone else happy but… I'd like to think that it was not that extreme. He stayed here for a few months, training Mr. Aaman and his cohorts during his stay."

"And why did he train you? What _did_ he teach you?" Natasha threw in her own questions decidedly more pointed than Clints had been. If Aaman was bothered by her tone than he didn't allow it to show on his face or in his body language.

"I'll answer the second question first." He muttered as he made his way over to the side so that he now stood beside them rather than behind. "The very first thing Raiga taught us was discipline and how to work together. 'If one of you loses the team loses', he used to say back then. If one of us fucked up the whole team got punished, made for a pretty good incentive to help one another if you ask me. After that he forced us into shape, if we weren't by then, and taught us trigger discipline. Pretty sure I'll never be able to look at a gun without hearing him berating me, so I guess he did alright by that. Afterwards came what to do, and what not to do in combat, team work, the whole nine yards. According to him it was pretty standard boot camp stuff, can't say if that's true or not but it certainly worked."

"And why? Just to make sure this camp had a few guards?" Natasha pressed on narrowing her eyes slightly at the man before her.

"We didn't just stand guard you know?" He shot back, this time with some heat in his voice. "When the war was in full swing we sometimes moved out to intercept the refugees and bring them back with us. Traveling back then was more than a little dangerous, so we got into our fair share of fights… and after he left, we kept on going till things settled down."

"Do you know why he left?" Clint cut in, genuinely curious by the looks of it as he leaned forward. "I mean from what I've heard he had not too bad a life here so…" The doctor and her guard shared a quick glance before they focused their gaze on the two agents once more.

"We… are not sure." Dr. Reiche said slowly as she leaned forwards herself. "However, before he left there were… some unsettling reports."

"Unsettling reports?" Clint pressed as he frowned at them. "Could you… elaborate?"

"I can try." The woman sighed as she shook her head. "Shortly before he left there were reports of… remote villages and communities disappearing if you will. One day they were there, the next gone. At times people would manage to get a glimpse at them from afar, ghost towns. No damage visible from the distance but… deserted. More often than not these buildings were shortly after found to be razed to the ground, often evidence of fire could also be found. Like someone trying to hide their tracks I'd guess, though I honestly don't know."

"And that's when he left?" Natasha pressed on, her mind whirling with possibilities. Had Emiya known what caused this destruction or had it simply triggered his apparent desire to be the hero, to try and save everyone as Tohsaka had put it.

"No, he was deeply unsettled by it and tried to get more information but he didn't leave then." Aaman murmured from the side, his own face pulled into a frown.

"Eventually we received new reports." Dr. Reiche continued on after a small pause. "About, well livestock and wild animals being attacked, drained of blood and left to rot in the sun. It was after he had heard that, that Raiga Kojiro packed his meager possessions and left in the dead of night."

 **End Notes:**

 _ **Nomad-117:**_ _Now then as for my apologies regarding this chapter. First regarding the delay. I fear that my real life currently and in the near future as well, requires me to read large quantities of text as well as write a lot. After such a day I hope you can forgive me if I wish to spend my free time differently than writing yet more. In addition to that I had a few problems with my muse, not entirely fixed to be honest. I had originally intended for an action sequence to be in this chapter. However after rewrite number x I decided it might be better to leave that for next chapter rather than force it into this one. That said I can unfortunately not tell you when the next chapter is coming. If possible I would very much like to get it done soon, but need often collides with desire. On the other hand, I might be able to get my hands on Fate/Stay Night the visual novel to increase my knowledge and understanding of the series. Though of course it being a novel I cannot guarantee that I will read through it swiftly, not with my current activities at least. I belief that concludes this for the most part. I apologize for the indubitably many mistakes left over in this chapter. Hopefully these errors do not take away too much of the enjoyment you have hopefully felt while reading this._

 _That said, if you enjoy this story allow me to recommend a few others that you are most likely already aware of but just to make certain._

 _First:_ _ **Man off the Moon by FiendLurcher**_ _a Fate/Extra/Mass Effect crossover_

 _Second:_ _ **My Ideal Academia by Saraak**_ _a Fate/Stay Night/My Hero Academia crossover_

 _Third:_ _ **Swords and Sorcery by Susanoh13**_ _a Fate/Stay Night/Harry Potter crossover. Currently two stories and thus in the second year of Harry Potter._

 _All of these recommendations are infinitely superior to my own work so if you are unfamiliar with them, I cannot recommend them enough. Now for last, one final recommendation though unrelated to Fate._

 _ **Journey to the East by kedrann**_ _a Rosario+Vampire/Harry Potter crossover. Exemplary world building as the author continues to mesh the two worlds together. Well worth the read and once again far superior to my own works. Until next time then._

 _PS: I suppose all of you can guess who or rather what Clint and Natasha will eventually encounter from the Moonlit World_


End file.
